On 13th October, the Insurance Institute of London held a webinar on the topic of promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion within insurance firms.

Is your workplace LGBTQ+ inclusive? Find out 10 tips….

French-born Corentin Guillo founded his company Bird.i in Glasgow in 2016 with the desire to democratise access to satellite imagery and its potential insights.

The company grew via two investment rounds and was consistently named one of Scotland’s top “startups to watch” before pivoting in 2018 towards providing real-time satellite imagery to the construction and infrastructure industries. Bird.i was a finalist for “Startup of the Year” at the 2018 Scottish Tech Startup Awards.

In this article we sat down with Corentin to discuss the benefits of founding his startup in Scotland, the key milestones in Bird.i’s development, and what the future holds both for his company and the vibrant Scottish space tech sector.

In this latest issue we have focussed on the benefits of founding a space tech start-up in Scotland; how Prestwick Spaceport is quietly positioning itself to lead UK launch ambitions; the steady rise of a Scottish space tech provider; and the future of the Scottish space industry.

There’s huge interest in the space sector, from academics doing research, to governments looking to foster its development, to investors looking for growth, to companies seeking more business opportunity. While Scotland is well positioned to take advantage of this interest, we can’t rest on our laurels.

This article outlines the growth in the sector, why it’s important to focus on the wider benefits it offers, and why the work of organisations like the Scottish Space Leadership Council will continue to be so vital in the years ahead.

Rod Ellis has worked in finance and compliance for over 30 years. Having started his working life as an auditor at KPMG in the UK and Hong Kong, he then spent the lion’s share of his career working for Invesco in Asia, the US, and Europe, where in the last decade he focused on transformation projects in finance and compliance.

I recently had a conversation with Rod to explore the regulatory landscape for UK asset management firms, and why they should start preparing now for a UK version of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act. What costs are involved? What are the benefits? What are the pitfalls? Here’s Rod’s take on what UK asset management firms can learn from the US experience.

Founded by three University of Dundee PhD students and their supervisor in 2002, STAR-Dundee was one of Scotland’s first purely space-focused tech companies. With their pioneering work on SpaceWire onboard networking technology for spacecraft, the company soon found itself in great demand amongst major spacecraft manufacturers and space agencies on four continents.

Here, Stuart tells us about STAR-Dundee’s growth, which has seen it open a location in Barcelona alongside its Dundee headquarters. What does the future hold for the company, its pioneering space technology, and the Scottish spacetech sector as a whole?

Some people question how many spaceports the UK can sustain. However, if the UK can offer a reliable, responsive, and affordable small satellite launch capability, then the world will beat a path to our door.

In this article, I explore some of the potential challenges that lie ahead. I’ll also set out why Prestwick Spaceport is well-placed to lead the UK’s future spaceflight ambitions, as well as the many potential benefits we offer to investors, partners, and local economy ‘beyond launch’.

In this Q&A, space entrepreneur Daniel Smith discusses the meteoric rise of his strategic marketing company AstroAgency, and why the industry needed a dedicated company that fully understands and can properly promote, analyse, and connect the sector.

We talk about his award-nominated series of online networking events, and the important work of the Scottish Space Leadership Council – which he co-chairs – in fostering the future growth of the sector both in Scotland and across the UK.