SCOTTISH satellites communications firm Celestia UK has announced that Dr Carol Marsh OBE, CEng FIET, Chair of the IET Council and of the Engineering Policy Group Scotland, has joined the business as its new Head of Digital Systems.
Carol joins Celestia UK from Leonardo in Edinburgh, where she held various senior roles and most recently was Deputy Head of Electronics Engineering. She will expand the digital systems capabilities for satellite communications, signal processing algorithms and distributed platforms which augment Celestia UK’s radio frequency and antenna expertise.
Her appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the business, supporting its current growth trajectory. Celestia UK is developing the next generation of Ka-Band very high throughput gateways for satellite communications, and aero terminals, with engineering design teams at both Heriot-Watt University Research Park, Edinburgh and Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire.
A Chartered Engineer, EUR ING and Past President of the Women’s Engineering Society, Carol has had a distinguished career in industry and academia, winning a plethora of awards in technology and for inspiring women in engineering. In 2020, she was awarded an OBE for services to diversity and inclusion.
Carol was awarded the degree of Doctor of Engineering in System Level Integration from the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde in 2011 and holds an HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Edinburgh Napier University.
She brings more than 30 years of industrial experience at senior engineering levels including Senior Design Engineer for GEC Marconi Avionics, becoming their first engineer to produce a design using an FPGA. She then went on to hold principal digital design and FPGA engineer roles at BAE Systems and ECS Technology, respectively.
In her previous role at Leonardo, she was responsible for overseeing the business’ electronic processes, tools and resource planning as well as promoting STEM, diversity and was the Firmware design authority.
Malachy Devlin, CEO of Celestia UK commented: “We are indeed fortunate that one of the country’s most experienced, award-winning women engineers with so much knowledge has joined our business.
“Carol brings a wealth of expertise in creating advanced architectures and driving technology strategy for mission-critical systems, alongside extensive managerial experience, which will continue to expedite our growth and technical success.”
Carol said: “The Celestia UK team is working on really exciting innovative technology that is creating new options for the satcom marketplace, and I am very excited to be getting involved in the design and ultimately the production processes at such an important juncture.”
“For me, it’s the chance to get back to engineering development as well as be involved in the space industry which here in Scotland is growing faster than anywhere else in the UK. I’m looking forward to being able to put all the experience I’ve gained in the field to help Celestia UK achieve its aims, as well as continuing to promote engineering, STEM and women engineers.”
More information about Celestia UK including career opportunities is at
