Global Surface Intelligence (GSI), the Scottish-based geospatial analytics company providing natural resource management analytics, has made two senior appointments to strengthen its leadership team to support its planned growth over the next two years.
Peter Young and George Lindsay have been appointed as non-executive director and chief operating officer, respectively. The appointments follow successful £1 million fundraising since its chief executive, Gavin Tweedie, was appointed in June 2017. Gavin and the GSI team are now working to grow the business across the UK and internationally.
Gavin commented: “As we look to upscale the business and drive forward our expansion programme, it is crucial we have strong leadership in place from the outset. We are continually developing ways to make rich earth observation data accessible at various levels - classifying, measuring and analysing - to aid decision-making and provide actionable insights. We’re currently working with land, forestry, agriculture and the energy sectors on a variety of land-classification and measurement projects.
“Peter and George both bring a wealth of experience and some great contacts within the geospatial sector. Their previous experience in running successful and profitable companies will also be critical in helping us achieve our ambitious goals.”
Peter Young, Non-Executive Director, GSI
Peter Young has been involved in leading high-tech industries in Aerospace, Space and Defence for over 30 years. He was CEO for seven years of Telespazio VEGA, one of the UK’s leading space services companies, and concurrently, senior vice president, based in Rome, for the Satellite Systems business unit of the parent company, Telespazio Sp.A.
Peter now undertakes several advisory roles for organisations such as Stevenson Astrosat; the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA); is a co-opted founding member of the Scottish Space Leadership Council; and has joined the Seraphim Space Fund Accelerator Programme as mentor and keynote presenter for the 2018 cohort.
Speaking about his appointment, Peter said: “I have a passion for helping young businesses grow to fulfil their potential. With Scotland on track to be the home of the UK’s first spaceport, it’s certainly an exciting time for the space sector. We need to promote Scotland’s space capability across industry and academia as a world-leading centre of innovation. Potential clients need help in understanding how this technology, like GSI’s, can map the changing behaviour of their land assets and resources to promote business efficiency and commercial viability.”
George Lindsay, COO, GSI
George Lindsay previously held senior management roles in similar industries; most recently spending the last five years in the USA as chief operating officer of Aglytix. In 2012, George was appointed as a GlobalScot, a Scottish business ambassador, by former Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, and remains active in assisting Scottish businesses expand their international operations.
George said: “It is exciting to return to Scotland and be greeted with so much innovation and a desire to excel. The GSI senior management has demonstrated a commitment to making the company a major player in the geospatial sector, giving its clients unique products to measure their natural resource assets and I look forward to helping this dynamic young company achieve its potential.”
The firm currently employs seven staff and recently moved into its new central Edinburgh premises on South St Andrew Street to make space for its growing team.
Notes to editors:
· Global Surface Intelligence is a Scottish-based earth observation and artificial intelligence as-a-service provider. It is a uniquely focused data refinery company, with deep roots in environmental sciences, harnessing next generation artificial intelligence to transform satellite optical and radar data, UAV, drone and ground survey data into commercially valuable information, which can be instantly consumed by end users, data brokers, market places, geospatial data publishers and imagery aggregators.