Speakers

Speaker profile

Will Whitehorn was born in Edinburgh and graduated with an Honours degree from the University in Aberdeen before spending his early career as a Helicopter search and rescue crewman in The North Sea.

Will joined the Virgin Group in 1987 and spent the next 20 years in key roles including Director of the Virgin Rail Group, Brand Development and Corporate Affairs Director, President of Virgin Galactic and latterly special advisor to Sir Richard Branson. Will has held senior non-executive positions in Next Fifteen Communications Group, Purplebricks Group plc, GVC Holdings plc and various government science, technology and transport task forces and bodies.

He joined the Board of the Scottish Exhibition + Conference Centre (now Scottish Event Campus Ltd) in 2010 and became Chair in 2014. In 2016 he became Chair of Clyde Space Ltd, the UK’s leading independent space satellite manufacturer and now sits on the Board of the newly merged body AAC Clyde Space AB.

He was Chair of Crowd Reactive, Loewy Group/Speed Communications and is currently Deputy Chair, Stagecoach Group plc and Chair at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. In 2018 Will joined the Board of Good Energy PLC as Deputy Chair and the Board of the Royal Air Force as a non-executive Director with rank equivalent of Air Vice-Marshall.

In 2019 Will became President of UKspace, the trade association which represents the UK space industry. In 2020 Will became Chair of Craneware PLC, an Edinburgh based company, which is engaged in the development, licensing and ongoing support of computer software for the United States healthcare industry.

He is a Fellow of The Royal Aeronautical Society and The Marketing Society and serves as the Vice President of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. In 2010 he was awarded the Geoffrey Pardoe RAeS Space Award for services to the space industry.