The Big Interview: Jeff Fyfe, leader for WL Gore’s global space portfolio

Many people claim to truly embody their company’s offering. But Jeff Fyfe has taken his devotion to a new level – having a piece of product made by his employer WL Gore & Associates literally inside him.

Fyfe joined the Delaware-based company aged just 16. Picture: Sean Conboy/Photogenics.

This came about when he had a hernia operation more than a decade ago. A membrane patch made by the global materials science business was sent direct to his consultant for use in the procedure. “I can claim I have a piece of the company inside me forever more – and it’s been working fine,” he says laughing.

The business is perhaps best known for being behind Gore-Tex fabric, but its offering also encompasses electronics, industrial and medical products. Its technology is used in everything from vascular grafts to car batteries, the retractable roof at Wimbledon’s Centre Court and clothing worn on expeditions to Mount Everest – and it has high-reaching ambitions to expand its presence in the space industry.

The latter is seeing a start-up boom, says Fyfe. “The likes of Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have recognised the vast opportunities space presents and are investing in space tourism and connecting the world, and Scotland is really well placed to capitalise on it,” he continues, keen for the nation to grow its share of the UK space industry from about a fifth currently.

The group was founded by Bill and Vieve Gore in their basement in 1958, and now claims to be one of the 200 largest privately held companies in the US.

Fyfe, who works at its site in Dundee, joined the Delaware-based company at its now defunct Dunfermline outpost at the age of 16, having shown an aptitude for technical drawing. He’s still amused that his father told him on the way to the interview to ask two things. “One: do you have further education. And two: do you have a canteen.”

Education

He was signed up as a drafting assistant with responsibility for technical drawings of Gore’s cables and cable assemblies. At the time he was the firm’s youngest worker in the UK, and about four decades later he is now the longest serving (“I’ve gone from being the kid to the old man”). He was also the first in the UK to embark on a further education programme, gaining a qualification in electrical and electronic engineering.

The Fifer is one of about 200 WL Gore workers in Scotland – the business is also present in Livingston – out of a global workforce of more than 10,500 “associates”, who are part-owners of the enterprise through a stock ownership plan. The group turns over some $3.7 billion (£3.1bn), while its UK arm in December last year announced a pre-tax operating profit of £23.1 million for the year ending 31 March, 2018.

Fyfe has spent his career developing Gore’s cable products for the demanding aerospace, defence and energy industries – with his current role being to lead its global space portfolio.

Gore’s cables arrived on the moon via an unmanned mission a few years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did, as well as enabling the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, notes Fyfe. So much attention is inevitably on the Moon landing itself, “but there was a lot of work done prior to that to get them there”, he admits. Gore works alongside Nasa to this day.

Key to WL Gore’s space operations is its Dundee Technology Park plant where Fyfe is based, which was opened by the Queen in 1987.

Legacy

And in June of last year, the firm announced the opening of its Gore Space Centre of Excellence at the Scottish site, to celebrate its legacy in line with the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

The business described the facility as showcasing the “vast heritage and technology developments from Gore over the years, as well as celebrating the role of the performance solutions division in producing electronic products for the space industries”. More than 100 spaceflight programmes have been supplied with key technology including Gore cables and assemblies.

The centre has allowed WL Gore to further consolidate and unify the manufacturing of space assemblies, and aims to create a key hub for all space work within the business.

Fyfe said at the time: “Our Gore Space Centre of Excellence in Dundee has been a facility that has been instrumental in our success and in aiding Scotland’s growth within the space sector, and it’s an area that we’re keen to continue building. Gore is now considered a global leader in the space technology market and our new [centre] celebrates our space legacy as it continues to develop.”

Highlight

He also points out that in what was a personal highlight for him, the launch of the facility saw a visit by WL Gore chief executive Jason Field, his first visit to Scotland. Field met Scottish trade, investment and innovation minister Ivan McKee, “and really got to see what we’re doing here”.

WL Gore is tapping into a Scottish space sector very much in the ascendant, with Scottish Development International (SDI) noting the aim to grow the industry’s value to £4bn by 2030 from £2.5bn in 2017.

Fyfe has said: “Approximately 25,000 new satellites will be launched into space within the next three to five years to help digital growth and connect the world. Scotland has the perfect landscape to launch rockets, alongside a great heritage of inventors, scientists and engineers. Now is Scotland’s time to reach for the skies and, for once, the sky is not the limit.”

Additionally, SDI says Glasgow builds more satellites than anywhere else outside the US – while Scotland’s space industry already employs more than 7,500 people and is made up of at least 130 companies.

These include Edinburgh-based Skyrora, which designs, manufactures and deploys rockets to unblock access to space for small satellite manufacturers.

There is also Forres-based Orbex, which launches small, micro and nano satellites into accurate low earth orbits. The latter has signed the paperwork to take small satellites into orbit from the proposed spaceport in Sutherland, Scotland – the first such facility in the UK.

SDI says the planned spaceport, funded by the UK Space Agency and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, means Scotland will be able to offer full end-to-end capabilities in the small satellite supply chain.

Such a project comes amid the rush to launch 25,000 new satellites into so-called “new space” – the commercialised sector – in the next three to five years, driven by digital growth, space exploration and connecting the world.

“It’s quite exciting, actually, when you consider all these new space satellites that they’re talking about launching – it’s fantastic to hear this,” says Fyfe.

But there isn’t currently a capability to get them all into orbit, he adds. “It’s opening up a great opportunity for start-up companies and organisations who want to get into the launch facilities.”

He explains that satellites for new space are much smaller than their traditional counterparts and have a limited lifespan.

“Traditional satellites are typically expected to last for 15 years. They can be anything from the size of a van up to a bus, whilst in new space the size of a satellite can be the size of a can of Irn-Bru to the size of a fridge. Due to the shorter lifespan, investment levels and lead times are much smaller, so the sector is picking up pace and Gore is trying to keep one step ahead and predict our customers’ needs.”

WL Gore has in fact been getting ready to debut a new portfolio of products for “new space” applications – and he sees strong potential appetite in European and US markets, for example. (The firm has more than 400 products for traditional space – but just about 20 for new space.)

“It’s a limited portfolio – but we believe it’s a portfolio that the industry is looking for and has been asking for for two years, and now we’re ready to provide it to the industry in terms of affordability.

“Essentially it’s the same materials that we would have in traditional space – it’s just a lot more affordable because of they way we process and manufacture the product.”

Fyfe also emphasises that WL Gore has never had a failure in space in all the years that it has been providing products. “It’s all about pushing our understanding of the space environment to ensure that we continue providing world-class products that will never fail.”

As for growth plans, Fyfe has been impressed with the progress in the last five years of the company’s aerospace and defence activity – and he would put space in that category. The firm is about to enter its new financial year. “Everything I’ve seen until now looks like that pace will be maintained. Certainly, for aerospace and defence it’s looking extremely buoyant for Gore, for sure.”

Fyfe is also convinced that space exploration is essential, as in his view earth as we know it won’t be here forever. “We need to start to explore other opportunities that may exist… if you don’t sort yourself out now who knows what may occur in the future. I don’t know which generation it’s going to be [but] we’re going to have to start thinking of exploring different planets.”