Four Appointed to Newly Formed Astroscale UK Advisory Board
All are Recognized Industry Leaders
Four distinguished experts have been named to the newly-established Astroscale UK Advisory Board: Richard Franklin, Rachel Gardner-Poole, Ian Annett, and Stuart Martin. Their collective expertise across defence, civil space, aviation, and sustainability will play a key role in guiding Astroscale’s strategic growth in the UK and Europe.
"With their extensive experience and distinguished contributions across multiple industries and in government roles, they will offer important advice to me and my senior leadership team as part of the Astroscale UK Advisory Board."
Nick Shave, Astroscale UK
Richard Franklin is a business leader and specialist in defence, aerospace, and security. He has held senior leadership roles, including Security Business Lead at QinetiQ and Business Development Director at G4S. Most recently, during his eight-year tenure at Airbus Defence and Space in the UK, he served as Head of Secure Communications before becoming UK Managing Director and Head of Secure Communications.
Rachel Gardner-Poole is an accomplished aviation and aerospace executive, and a Chartered Mathematician. She has held key positions at the UK Space Agency, the Civil Aviation Authority, and Connected Places Catapult where she led a number of transformation programmes. She was also the Chair of the Jet Zero Council Zero Emission Flight Delivery Group. Currently a Director of Aviascia, Rachel provides consultancy services in sustainability and transformation and serves on the Board of MAF, the world’s largest air humanitarian charity.
Ian Annett is a leading telecommunications, defence and space leadership professional and was formerly the Deputy Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency where he was responsible for the delivery of all national government space programmes, including launch and space based PNT. He served in the Royal Navy for over 30 years, where he was the Royal Navy’s Chief Information Officer and Head of Information Warfare and was the UK MOD’s SKYNET Program Director during his time at Joint Forces Command. As CEO of his own consultancy, Celestial Fix Ltd, Ian brings invaluable experience and insight into both civil and military space sectors.
Stuart Martin is a highly respected space industry strategist with a long and diverse senior leadership career in the space sector. With a history of technical and leadership roles at the European Space Agency (ESA), at Logica (now CGI) and over a decade as CEO of Satellite Applications Catapult, he currently serves as Chair of the National Space Center, as well as a Non-Executive Board Member for the UK Space Agency.
“We are delighted to welcome Richard, Rachel, Ian, and Stuart to the Astroscale team,” said Nick Shave, Astroscale UK’s Managing Director. “With their extensive experience and distinguished contributions across multiple industries and in government roles, they will offer important advice to me and my senior leadership team as part of the Astroscale UK Advisory Board. We look forward to benefiting from their significant expertise and insights to support our growth as we continue to mature as a major force within the UK and European space industry.”