The Satellite Applications Catapult appoints five new Non-Executive Directors
Marketing
The Satellite Applications Catapult has appointed five new non-executive directors, Manjari Chandran-Ramesh, Tobias Ellwood, Ruth Mallors-Ray, Tony Mather and Colin McInnes, who will join the Catapult’s board in February 2025. They will support the effective governance of the Catapult and bring invaluable insight from distinguished careers in industry, academia and the public sector.
Manjari Chandran-Ramesh is a partner at Amadeus Capital. Her investment focus is on AI, Robotics and Quantum Technologies with experience through the whole life cycle of investment including exits (Ravelin by WorldPay, TheySay by Aptean). After starting her career in academia, over the past 14 years, she has built businesses focused on tough-to-commercialise deep tech from University Intellectual Property, gaining both investor and operational experience. Manjari is on the Strategic Advisory Board that advises the UK Government’s National Quantum Technologies Programme and is also a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Enterprise Hub Committee, a mentor for Creative Destruction Labs and a Kauffman Fellow of Class 28.
The Rt Hon Tobias Ellwood was the conservative MP for Bournemouth East from May 2005 to May 2024, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence from June 2017 to July 2019 and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from July 2014 to June 2017.
Ruth Mallors-Ray is a consultant who fosters collaboration across industry, government, and academia. Her portfolio spans sectors such as manufacturing, aviation, and emerging fields like hydrogen. Ruth was formerly Chief Operating Officer of the Aerospace Technology Institute and Director of the Aerospace, Aviation and Defence Knowledge Transfer Network. Currently, she serves as Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority’s Environmental Sustainability Panel and is a NED for the National Composites Centre. A Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Ruth was awarded an OBE in 2015 for her services to science and innovation.
Tony Mather has spent over 30 years working in technology and digital transformation most recently as CIO at the Atomic Weapons Establishment where he was responsible for a substantial information and technology change portfolio. He has been Business Transformation Director at the Musgrave Group, CIO and member of the Board of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and held leadership roles in Insurance (Friends Provident), Media (Clear Channel International), Transportation (British Airways), FMCG (PepsiCo), Retail (Safeway Stores plc), and the Industrial sector (The BOC Group).
Colin McInnes is James Watt Chair, Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Glasgow, where he holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies.
His long-term programme of research spans a range of emerging space technologies, spacecraft orbital dynamics and space resources. He aims to devise, develop and demonstrate new ideas and technologies which can underpin the space applications of the future.
He is a former member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council and a former Chair of the UK Space Agency Space Technology Advisory Committee. Colin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Academy of Engineering, and was made MBE in 2014 for services to Space Research, Science and Technology.
The new non-executive directors will replace long-standing board members Simon Acland, Vanessa Lawrence CB and Chad Anderson whose fixed terms of office have ended over the preceding 6 months.
Sanjay Bhandari, Chair of Board of the Satellite Applications Catapult said:
“We are delighted to welcome Manjari, Tony, Ruth, Colin and Tobias to the board of the Satellite Applications Catapult. They bring a wealth of experience from careers which have strong alignment with areas of our own corporate strategy. I look forward to working with them to strengthen our governance, domain expertise and to develop new relationships with important stakeholders.
I would also like to thank our outgoing board members, Vanessa Lawrence CB, Simon Acland and Chad Anderson for their hard work and commitment over the last nine years. The Catapult is a more respected, impactful and influential organisation thanks to their counsel and support.”
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