A Scottish space tech firm has appointed three high-profile executives to its team as it eyes global expansion.
Edinburgh-headquartered R3-IoT has also acquired an office space in Glasgow and announced a series of further senior hires and promotions.
The scale-up, which utilises satellite infrastructure to provide businesses with continuous, accurate data from remote locations, secured seed investment of £3.1 million last summer.
The company says it is on track to commercialise and establish global operations in 2022.
Its new executive team comprises “internationally experienced” figures spanning operations, human resources, marketing, and sales. It is hoped they will drive business development in international markets while continuing to grow the team.
Sarah McLaughlin has been named vice president of marketing, where she will focus on market growth, lead the elevation of R3-IoT’s global brand, and increase revenue.
She brings more than 15 years’ industry experience, spanning brands such as PwC, Tesco Bank, National Australia Bank, and Glasgow Caledonian University.
A leading advocate in addressing the gender gap in the tech industry, she was recently appointed chair of the Gender Diversity Workstream of Scotland’s Digital Economy Skills Group.
Dave Falkingham joins as vice president of sales to lead R3-IoT’s global sales and business development team as the company gears up for commercial launch.
He will also focus on North American market entry and securing new partnerships and alliances for the business.
Falkingham was formerly chief revenue officer at software-as-a-service company Shepherd. He brings more than 25 years’ global sales experience, including leading sales to achieve revenues in excess of $100m (£74.4m) across Northern Europe while at software business Dassault Systèmes.
In addition, Evelyn Walker has been appointed as vice president of operations to support the company scale up, focusing on operational performance, process improvement and risk management.
Walker has more than 25 years’ experience in helping businesses across industries scale up and is a director of council for the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, representing startups, scale-ups and small and medium sized enterprises (SME).
She also sits on the First Minister’s Advisory Group for Women and Girls.
The new executive team hires are part of wider talent growth within the company, which has more than doubled its workforce in the past 12 months across its engineering, marketing, operations and sales functions, from 11 to 24.
Allan Cannon, chief executive and co-founder of R3-IoT, said: “We’re rapidly reaching the next level in our mission to digitise the planet, and these additions are the right leaders at the right time as we ramp up operations in the coming months.
“Evelyn, Dave and Sarah have proven track records of delivering significant successes across their respective fields. As we look to develop our technology, expand internationally and attract further investment, we will benefit hugely from having their experience and insight on board.
“Our purpose-designed premises also represents another big step in the company’s journey. A custom-built lab and open, inclusive layout has been set out with innovation and collaboration in mind and will not only help us build on our offering, but also continue to attract the biggest talents in the industry.”
