Martin “Dill” Faulkes. Photo: Faulkes.com

[Via Satellite 08-28-2015] Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. (GES) has appointed Martin C Faulkes as chairman of its board of directors. The appointment of Faulkes further strengthens GES as it continues to grow and develop in the U.K. space sector.

Faulkes brings a wealth of experience to Goonhilly. As the founding president of Logica‘s U.S. business, he grew the company’s international profile especially with airlines, banks and telecommunications companies. After returning to London, as managing director he built and sold the software company SPL before setting up his own mergers and acquisitions business. Faulkes has invested in a number of companies that have been successfully floated on the U.K. stock market. His latest venture, VolitionRx Ltd., is a publicly quoted life sciences company developing blood-based diagnostic tests for cancer.

Faulkes also has a strong philanthropic involvement in space and science education: he founded the Dill Faulkes Education Trust with the aim of inspiring young people through science and math, and help them develop skills and confidence. Projects funded through the Trust include the “Faulkes Telescopes,” a pair of research-quality telescopes accessible to schools, and the “Faulkes Flying Foundation,” which gave children from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to learn to fly gliders. Faulkes was a trustee for the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and main board director at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, Calif.