Wilfred Oliver
CEO & Owner
Satellite Systems & Launch Vehicles
Wilfred Oliver has over 35 years’ experience in the space business. Following graduation in 1976 with a BSc Honours in Mechanical Engineering, Wilfred started working in the Defence & Aerospace business before joining British Aerospace - Space and Comms Division in 1982 where he initially became a specialist in the design of light weight Carbon Fibre composite flight structures such as antenna structures, reflectors and launch vehicle structures for the Ariane programs. As a Launch Vehicle Manager in the BAe Design Office Wilfred was responsible for the development and qualification of a number of launch vehicle structure including the all composite Ariane4 SPELDA, payload adapters and rocket release gear.
In 1989 Wilfred joined Inmarsat, where as a customer resident in UK, France and USA, he was part of the on-site monitoring team for the successful L-Band Inmarsat2 and Inmarsat3 satellites and also the Inmarsat4 satellite program for mobile BGAN services. This included responsibility for monitoring the procurement and qualification of the Northrup Grumman 9m unfurlable mesh reflector. As part of the Inmarsat-ICO feasibility team he helped define ‘ICO’ as a new satellite constellation business venture.
Appointed Head of Mechanical Engineering at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory Wilfred was responsible for the design, construction and test of a number of key equipments and sub-systems for various space science programs. Leading a multi-discipline team at MSSL he was successful in delivering the Optical Monitor (OM) for the ESA XMM-Newton spacecraft, 3m CFRP UV telescope for the NASA/UK/Japanese Solar-B spacecraft as well as numerous other instrument packages for ESA missions and the camera package and Payload Adjustable Workbench for Colin Pillinger’s Beagle2 Mars Lander.
In 2006 Wilfred Joined Telesat Canada as Senior Consulting Engineer participating in a large number of space consulting programs for International clients as well as the space insurance community. Over his space career Wilfred has gained in depth experience in all satellite platform sub-systems and launch vehicles and has worked on over 35 satellite programs and conducted multiple launch campaigns using many different launch vehicles.
After leaving Telesat in 2009 Wilfred formed Global Space Consulting Ltd where he quickly developed a company reputation for high level due diligence satellite construction monitoring resulting in strong customer confidence. Using his extensive satellite experience, dedication and focus he is able to identify program risks and solutions that have resulted in his company achieving a high success rate of compliant satellite deliveries and in-orbit performance.
Wilfred is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and member of the Association of Project Managers and has written and published papers on the design and qualification of Ariane 4 SPELDA and composite design presented at ESA/ESTEC and I.Mech.E.
Olga Bertrand
Director
Global Sourcing Network – Space & Aviation
Olga Bertrand is a very experienced industrial business engineer with over 10 years of international experience in Airspace and Defense commodity management, industrial contract negotiation, government sales-acquisition process, strategic sourcing, civil engineering and IT & cyber security intelligence businesses.
After graduating in 1997 with a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering she went on to complete a Masters in Strategic Marketing in 2009 and an MBA in Business Engineering and Industrial Affairs in 2010.
Over her highly successful career she has worked in both France and the USA and has developed a deep knowledge in negotiating complex equipment, services and maintenance agreements in international technology settings from satellite ground structures to business aircrafts and has a successful background working with both prime contractors and subcontractors. Within the Defence and Space, she is known for recognising and adhering to the high standards of safety required while conducting project management, understanding schedules, contractual agreements, guiding policies, contract modifications, extensions, or renewals.
Her key achievements include:
Conducting and leading bidding and negotiation activities for high value tenders at over 60M$
Successful contracts set up with key satellite suppliers, gaining > $1.0M in savings
Resolve legal matters relating to contract execution - breach, compliance
Handling commercial litigation, dispute resolution and claims recovery. Successfully reached a settlement in a contentious US litigation with leading US aerospace company
Supervise supply chain military provisions; export and shipping issues
Constant sales generation with foreign MoD and government department at close to $3M annual
Olga is reliable and focused and has consistently achieved successful projects within the highest professional standards along with significant efficiency gain, adept to team leading and always has a willingness to take responsibilities. She is trained in Contract Negotiation, IP rights, Export Control, Spend Management. Solid knowledge in ERP system, BravoAdvantage, Lean, Six sigma, procurement tools. Olga is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Ukrainian.
Trevor Jones
Satellite Communications Systems Analyst
Trevor Jones has over +35 years’ experience in the space business including 20 years combined consulting and customer resident monitoring of satellite and payload construction, assembly and test.
Following his graduation in 1977 with honours in Physics, Trevor joined Marconi Space and Defence Systems in Portsmouth, UK. As a senior system engineer at Marconi, Trevor’s responsibilities included analysing MARECS (Inmarsat I) communication payload equipment for nuclear radiation dosages, writing and updating the MARECS payload operations requirements handbook, and Passive Intermodulation (PIM) testing on MARECS payloads with multipaction tests on critical equipment. As payload systems analyst for MARECS B and B2, his tasks included performance analysis at payload level, devising diagnostic tests for payload anomalies, writing payload test reports, and support for the delivery and buy-off of the MARECS satellite payloads.
In 1985 Mr Jones joined British Aerospace, Stevenage, UK and became the BAe customer resident payload engineer in Hughes Aircraft Corporation, Los Angeles to monitor progress on the design, construction and test of the Inmarsat 2 payload. From 1987-1997 Trevor was appointed as RF Systems Analyst at the European Space Agency (ESTEC), Noordwijk, Netherlands where he worked primarily on communications systems engineering for both a number of in-house projects as well as an RF consultant to a number of external clients.
In 1997 Mr Jones joined Telesat as a Senior Payload Systems Specialist with responsibilities for both internal satellite programs as well as a number of external space consulting programs for international clients. Since 2000 Mr Jones has been consulting full-time working with a number of clients on a range of GEO and LEO satellite projects for communications, navigation or earth observation missions covering design reviews and payload construction and test. Trevor has sound experience in LEO Cubesat and GEO mobile/broadband/HTS payload new business studies including modelling coverage plots, traffic density, link budgets, antenna sizing and trade-offs.
Trevor’s key skills and expertise includes:
Communications system engineering
Resident Payload Engineer
Payload AIT and performance assessment
Analysis, simulation and modelling of comms systems including orbital parameters, coverage plots, link budgets, traffic density, payload sizing, antenna sizing and trade-offs, satellite payload and ground terminal specifications
Time and event driven simulation using Matlab, Simulink and similar
Trevor Jones has written and published papers on satellite payload design and Repeater and Antenna Design for a European On-board Processing Satellite System published at ECSC-1 and ICDSC-9 and holds a patent for Reconfigurable Transmit Antenna for Shaped Contour Coverage; Multibeam communication system and method.
Malcolm Lamming
Payload & Systems Engineering
Malcolm Lamming has over 35 years in the satellite payload business.
After graduating from Cambridge University in 1987 with an engineering degree Malcolm has spent time at both satellite manufacturers (Airbus) as well as operators Eutelsat before embarking as a consultant including working with Telesat Canada before joining GSCL.
Malcolm has extensive experience and a proven track record across the depth & breadth of payload engineering, including:
Equipment design, development and test including high-power OMUXes
Significant experience in design/build to avoid high-power problems - multipaction, corona & PIM
Payload design, production, validation on-ground and in-orbit (IOT)
Telecomms payloads ranging from simple Ku to complex on-board digital processing for channelisation, routing and beam-forming e.g. Inmarsat 4 & 6, and to robust anti-interference missions (government secure telecomms, secure TT&C
Input to proposals, frequent presentations to international prospective clients
Investigations and diagnoses of root cause and resolution of anomalies - often in time-critical situations like spacecraft thermal vacuum and IOT
Modelling and trade-offs at end-to-end level - user terminals, satellite in GEO/MEO/LEO, hubs, various modulation schemes and error correction coding; effect of end-to-end path imperfections and interferers on symbol error rate (SER)
System-level identification of the criticality of an issue to performance and revenue and to the security of the mission
Identification of payload architecture weaknesses that if left unchecked would lead to significant G/T degradation and vulnerability to other on-board and co-located payloads
ITU compliance aspects
Identification of program risks and alerts arising from reported in-orbit failures, new suppliers, long lead components, attrition policy
Independent analysis of payload key performance parameters, including assessment of system effect of unit non-compliances
Knowledge of track record of a number of current flight equipment suppliers
Due diligent assessment of contractual compliance
Experience of dealing with satellite insurers
Experience with a range of international clients
Malcolm Lamming has written and published papers on microwave filters published by & presented at ESA/ESTEC.