“I was born and bred in Guildford, and as a young girl at primary school was living just a couple of miles from the University when Surrey Satellite was formed back in 1985. After leaving school I tried my hand in retail for a bit, then moved into office admin roles, and eventually joined SSTL in 2000 to work on reception. We were only about a hundred people then - a true family-sized company - and I remember the buzz of having customer engineers from Nigeria and Algeria with us at the time.
In 2003 I moved briefly into project admin on the Giove-A mission, and the following year I joined the procurement team as an Assistant Buyer also with responsibility for travel. From there I gradually worked my way up through a range of roles, eventually becoming a Procurement Lead before moving across to the Commercial team in 2021 as Contracts Manager.
What’s kept me here is the enthusiasm and genuine passion that people at SSTL have for the space industry - and the pride we all share in building satellites right here in Guildford. The company has grown enormously over my 25 years, both in size and in the complexity of what it takes to operate as a satellite manufacturer. But for all that change, I still think we’ve managed to keep that family-oriented, flexible feel that made SSTL special from the moment I joined.”
Thank you, Karen.. for your 25 years of service, your Guildford heritage and the significant contribution you’ve made to shaping SSTL into the company it is today.