Industry heavyweight joins Novosound to drive international growth strategy
01/10/2020
Novosound, an award-winning novel thin-film ultrasound technology company, has appointed Dr Derek Mathieson, former Chief Marketing and Technology Officer for global energy technology business Baker Hughes, as its new Chair.Previously, Dr Mathieson, who is currently based in Houston, Texas, USA, has held a number of high-profile positions at Baker Hughes. These include: Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer; Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer; President, Western Hemisphere Operations; and President, Products and Technology.
In his most recent role, as Chief Marketing and Technology Officer, he was responsible for leading the commercial growth strategy for the company, including the development of multi-generational integrated technology plans for Baker Hughes’ extensive products and technology portfolio, managing corporate communications and leading future business incubation efforts.
Dr Mathieson earned a PhD in microelectromechanical systems and a Bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was also awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering. He is a Chartered Engineer with the UK’s Engineering Council, a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
Prior to joining Baker Hughes, he served as Chief Executive Officer for WellDynamics Inc, which was acquired by Halliburton in 2008. His career also includes roles at Shell Exploration & Production and Wood Group, both based in the UK.
Dr Dave Hughes, Founding Director and Chief Technology Officer at Novosound, said: “Derek brings vast experience of international businesses to Novosound. With the global ultrasonic market now valued at $45 billion (approximately £34.7 billion) and growing, we strongly believe there is a huge opportunity to grow at scale and to take a big part of that market. Attracting such an influential and internationally respected industry leader as Derek is extremely exciting for us and is a strong reflection of the work we have delivered to date and demonstrates our future ambitions and plans.”
Dr Derek Mathieson said: “Industries such as oil & gas, aerospace, nuclear, industrial and infrastructure crave innovation that brings improvements to process, efficiency and safety. Ultrasonic sensors are at the heart of that. Dave Hughes and his highly skilled team at Novosound have rapidly developed ground-breaking non-destructive testing (NDT) technology with truly global market opportunities and I am looking forward to working with them to achieve their ambitious goals.”
In just two years, Novosound is said to have rapidly revolutionised ultrasound technology, which has remained largely unchanged for 40 years, by replacing conventional sensor materials with a flexible piezoelectric thin-film material. The company has created what it claims is the world’s first truly flexible NDT ultrasound tool that simplifies complex inspections in the aerospace and energy industries, and a fit-and-forget sensor that can measure corrosion continuously up to 400°C in oil and gas environments.
In December 2019, Novosound raised £3.3 million from a Series A funding round to develop new products for the NDT market, applied to oil & gas, aerospace, nuclear, industrial and infrastructure, and to build the commercialisation team to enter international markets such as North America and Asia.
The Series A funding round was led by Foresight Williams, alongside existing shareholders including Par Equity, Kelvin Capital, Gabriel Investments, the University of the West of Scotland and the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise.
Established in 2018 by Dave Hughes, CTO, and Richard Cooper, CEO, Novosound is based just outside Glasgow, Scotland, and now employs a team of 27. It was the first spin-out company from the University of the West of Scotland, raising £1.5 million at its seed investment round in April 2018.
The business also secured a £1 million grant from Scottish Enterprise in July 2019 as part of a £2 million project to rapidly scale up the company’s research and development (R&D) activity and recruit additional highly skilled staff.
www.novosound.net
