Going where the wind takes me...

So a lot of people write this sort of post the first day they join a company but I decided to hang on a bit in case, you know, it didn’t work out!? As a little background some of my contacts will know that I finally left Consortiq last year and it’s now in the safe hands of Gareth Beverley and going from strength-to-strength especially as the Future Transport Zone project gets going.

Since then I’ve spent most of the year so far mainly racing sailing boats offshore. It’s a strange sort of type 2 fun where you spend the whole weekend hungry, tired, wet, cold and terrified of needing a number 2. It tests your team-working skills under pressure and when you're at your lowest ebb. However, being offshore means you’re also off-grid and there’s plenty of time between sail changes to ponder what to do next. During the winter and spring I continued to volunteer to work on the lifeboat too responding to pager calls at 2am in the morning; my other half loved those shouts. It's fair to say I love being on the water.

In between, I did a little bit of consulting for a zero carbon accelerator programme and met some great founders and worked alongside some great mentors which opened my eyes to a whole raft of problems, ideas and solutions I had no idea about. But consulting is very much eyes on, hands off; and I like getting my hands dirty.

Being a founder gives you a crash course in business. I learnt a lot of things, especially how important culture is. It also gives you a rather unique skill set: that’s why when I saw an opportunity advertised I had a gut feeling, so often used as founder, that this was going to be a good move. I knew the company had a good reputation, I knew they had some great people and I knew they were going all out to make the vision happen.?

I’m excited about what comes next in the industry. The things we have mooted for the best part of a decade now and are finally becoming a reality. Things like automated drone delivery helping to connect rural communities and ship-to-shore delivery improve people's safety. Many missions being flown simultaneously from a remote command centre helping to bring economies of scale to use-cases. Finally unlocking routine BVLOS at scale.

That’s why I decided to join Skyports, as Global Head of Business Development and Growth. I’ve only been there for four weeks but it feels like four months. It’s a much different space than where I played last time but it’s a lot of the same faces! So if we haven’t caught up already then drop me a message. And if we haven’t met before then now is a good time to get in touch too. I’ve got an entertainment budget and I’m not afraid to use it!?

N.B. I can assure you we're all having fun in the photo it's just not everybody has let their face know! It might have something to do with the fact that all of us on the rail had just been hit in the face by a rogue wave. Thanks Jake Sugden for the photo!