Colin Drysdale takes up the post and will be responsible for leading the successful delivery of projects at WFS which specializes in subsea wireless automation.
With more than 20 years’ experience of delivering transformational change and new technology development, Colin was previously Head of Technical Projects at McLaren where he was responsible for delivery across motorsport, electric vehicles and public transport. His career also spans aerospace and defense sectors, developing radar for Eurofighter Typhoon, sensors for the A400M Atlas program and military communications systems.
He will oversee the engineering and technical team which has been also been further reinforced with the appointment of three specialists across the electronics and software disciplines. Peter Sharpe, interim CEO at WFS, said: “We are thrilled to welcome on board Colin who, through his background, brings an exciting new dimension to the company and will form a key part of the leadership team.
“Colin has an impressive breadth of skills which are fully transferrable to our business and technologies, and this will be integral to supporting our growth strategy. As well as providing technical leadership to the engineering team, Colin will establish a robust project management function in line with WFS’s expansion plans which harness our capabilities to help customers reduce costs, increase production and improve their carbon footprint.”
A chartered engineer and a member of the Association for Project Management, Colin graduated from Glasgow University with a BEng (Hons) in microcomputer systems engineering. Previous employers have included Siemens, BAE Systems and Roke which is a research and development center of excellence for communications, networks and electronic sensors.
During his career, Colin has led number of major projects including creating improvements in engineering and project management processes that delivered quality and consistency of project results and significantly reduced development costs. In motorsport and public transport, he delivered complex projects which involved the development and integration of software, hardware and mechanical design elements as well as establishing a data center and service desk to support customer operations.
He said: “WFS has established a suite of smart subsea technology which is a major game changer for a diverse range of sectors including offshore wind and oil & gas. Their holistic approach to developing solutions was of particular appeal because this, combined with WFS’ edge computing and digitisation of its tools, is more critical than ever to significantly increasing productivity and efficiencies while substantially reducing costs.
“I look forward to working with the engineering and management teams, and applying my experience in sensors, communications and data analytics, to help WFS enhance our customer’s operations and reduce the cost of maintenance.”
WFS is a world leader in subsea digitalization through its range of true wireless Subsea Internet of Things® (SIoT) products that provide offshore operators with asset integrity monitoring with embedded edge computing for real-time insight.
The award-winning company has delivered more than 7,000 of its proprietary Seatooth® devices through its team of dedicated software and hardware engineers based in Livingston, Scotland.
An industry first, the wireless Seatooth® products have the potential to disrupt the offshore energy industry by providing operators of oil and gas platforms and wind farm installations with the ability to digitalize their subsea assets, reducing cost and increasing asset life through insight derived from real-time data.
