Scotland-based kite power generation technology developer, Kite Power Systems (KPS), has appointed Simon Heyes as Chief Executive and Dr Andrew Tyler CBE as non-executive Chair.
These latest appointments complete the company’s recruitment of its senior management team that will take forward and commercialise KPS’s wind power technology, and follows the recent news of the Scottish Investment Bank’s GBP 2 million investment in the company.
Simon Heyes joins from Infinis Energy Holdings, where he was Wind Energy Development & Construction Director. A Chartered Mechanical Engineer with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, he worked at Infinis Energy for seven years after holding senior positions at SSE/Scottish Hydro-Electric and GEC Alstom. His early career was in the aviation sector – working for Rolls-Royce on their civil aircraft engines before joining the RAF full time as an Engineer Officer.
“I’m delighted to be joining KPS; it’s an exciting time for everyone involved in the company,” Heyes said.
”With the support of our investors, and with the talented people that we have working at KPS, we are in a strong position to develop and commercialise our technology. We intend to commence testing of our 500kW system this year, and within 3-5 years we hope to deploy our first 3MW onshore and offshore kite systems. Our testing of our 40kW system is ongoing, and achieving performance above our expectations.”
Heyes will work closely with KPS’s new Chair: Dr Andrew Tyler. Andrew has since 2013 been Chief Executive of the aerospace and defence company Northrop Grumman Europe and has been an advisor to KPS over the past two years. During his 25 year career, Tyler has held senior positions within the Ministry of Defence and was Chief Executive of the tidal energy company, Siemens-owned Marine Current Turbines from 2011-13. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
In addition, following the GBP 2m investment in KPS made by Scottish Enterprise, Dr Sian George, a former Chief Executive of Ocean Energy Europe, will be joining the KPS Board as a non-executive Director.
KPS currently employs 24 people at its operations in Glasgow and West Freugh in south west Scotland.