Luis Gomes

CEO, Clyde Space Ltd

Luis Gomes started working on smallsats in the mid-1990s while studying for his degree in Lisbon and joined Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in 1997 as a Mission Analyst, later taking on the project management of several EO missions. He ran the Earth Observation (EO) division of SSTL for several years, leading developments in optics, SAR and video from space, before taking the role of Commercial Director and later CTO of the company. Luis joined AAC Clyde Space as CEO in 2019 to pursue the next revolution in the space industry. Since Joining the company Luis has focused his efforts in growing the company and extending the Space Data as a Service business line, with a view to make services and data from space more accessible to all.

MSc in satellite technology from the University of Surrey and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics from the University of Lisbon. Luis Gomes has 25 years of experience in the space industry, and specializes in the small satellite field. He most recently comes from the British firm SSTL, where he was CTO and Executive Director, responsible for defining and conducting technical and commercial strategies.
Shares: 60 928 
Warrants 2020/2023:B: 96 000
Warrants 2022/2025:B: 120 000

I am, since 2019, the CEO of AAC Clyde Space, a company headquartered in Sweden, but with operations in the UK, US, Netherlands, and South Africa. The company supplies components for satellites manufactured by third parties, designs and build its own fully integrated satellites, and increasingly sells services and data from its own in orbit constellation. Before that, I spent 21 years at Surrey Satellite Technology, starting as an engineer, moving into project management, and in the second half of my period there, I run the Earth Observation and Science business unit, and later I was the CCO and then the CTO of the company. At SSTL I worked on more than 30 satellite missions, was responsible for starting new businesses for the company and set the overall strategy for the company.

Over my years in the space industry, I always believed that it is what the technology delivers that makes a difference. Most of my career in the industry has been spent developing new commercial concepts to make better use of the technology that we develop. At SSTL I setup and run teams dedicated to use our satellite technology and instruments to better serve the market. As an example, my small EO team pushed the limits in high resolution performance, creating the SSTL 300S1 product, under my directive of “get me the biggest camera that fits” on an existing platform. That allowed the company to start a new business selling high resolution images from four satellites, earning in excess of £150million. In a similar manner I drove the development of the first SAR satellite for the company, with the aim to build a low cost constellation dedicated to maritime services – the satellite was launched but despite a lot of dedication over the years to finance the constellation, that proved elusive, although they are now working on a follow on mission. And together with the Engineering Director, we setup a small team to run a very fast development of a new commercial offering, called Carbonite. That is now a product line being used by SSTL, underpinning among others the Satellite Vu constellation of infrared imaging satellites that recently started to be launched. My move to AAC Clyde Space was motivated by the desire to progress further the focus on what the market needs, without the constraints of a big owner who had its own (often differing) strategy. AAC Clyde Space needed a new direction and a new plan, and over the past four years I and my team have been growing the company, acquiring companies and founding new ones. We are developing two new business lines selling data & services, one for the maritime sector and one for the agricultural sector. This is very much what I enjoy doing: look at what technology and capabilities a company has, match that with what are the market opportunities for growth and build a business around that.