spelfie, the space selfie, appoints former Gartner International CEO as Chairman

spelfie – the space selfie, has announced the appointment of former Gartner International CEO Graham Norton-Standen as Chairman with immediate effect.

Norton-Standen has led, turned-around and grown companies with thousands of employees and many billions of dollars of annual revenues, including as CEO of information technologies leader Gartner International, and division president for technology leaders Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Electronic Data Systems (EDS, now DXC Technology.) 

He has served as Chairman, senior board member or advisor to a variety of organisations globally which include British Telecom (BT), Cable & Wireless, Deutsche Bank, Hewlett Packard, P&O, Reuters, Tata Group and Unisys, to name a few. 

spelfie, an award-winning startup based in Glasgow, has made its mission to bring defence-grade real-time satellite imagery to the masses, by capturing sponsored events and its fans from space. Participants take a selfie on the app as an AIRBUS satellite passes overhead and the two images are combined to create the spelfie - an ‘out of this world’ check-in from space, optimised for social media. spelfie offers a carbon efficient alternative to traditional digital marketing strategies. 

CEO of spelfie, Chris Newlands said of the appointment: “Graham is a highly-respected captain of global industry with a rich C-suite background in blue chip organisations and in other senior capacities for a number of the world’s top companies, as well as influencing and accelerating many start-ups. He is joining the team at a time when the company is expanding from a fan engagement and event activation tool to a company with multiple revenue streams in both the B2B and B2C arenas. His experience, guidance and strategic expertise will take us to the next level.” 

Norton-Standen added: “I am delighted to join the spelfie team. Once they described their ambitions and their goals, it was an easy decision to accept their offer to become a hands-on Chairman. I am here to add value and direction in the short term and scale for the long term. It is an exciting global project.” 

Norton-Standen joins a stellar boardroom and advisory board which includes Eric Orme (Amazon Prime Video), Dr Chris Arnold (Saatchi & Saatchi), Linda McCutcheon (TimeInc.) and Joe Little (British Petroleum)