The Satellite Applications Catapult announced that John Abbott has been appointed as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mr Abbott took up the post at the end of October, replacing Stuart Martin who announced his intention to step down earlier this year. The announcement follows the completion of a formal recruitment process, led by the Chair of the Satellite Applications Catapult Board, Sanjay Bhandari.

Mr Abbott joins the Catapult from the Real Estate Registry in Saudi Arabia, where he is Chief Digital Officer. Mr Abbott was instrumental in the delivery of the Kingdom’s first ever registry of land ownership as part of a public-private partnership supported by the Public Investment Fund.

Mr Abbott was previously Director of Digital Data and Technology and a member of the Executive Board at HM Land Registry, where he led a successful £200m digital transformation programme and the organisation’s pioneering open innovation programme, Digital Street. Prior to this he was Head of Digital Products at Ordnance Survey where he was responsible for digitising and publishing the organisation’s geospatial data as well as the Innovations Lab and Geovation, a successful start-up incubator, which has supported more than 150 early-stage businesses which together have raised £130m. Earlier roles included Product Director at Mimecast, the UK tech company acquired by Permira for $5.8Bn. He has an MBA from Imperial College London and is married with three children. Read more…