Catapult centre appointments

THE Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (Orec) in Glasgow made two senior appointments yesterday as the centre beefs up its top team.

The catapult – set up by the UK government to speed up the use of new technology in the offshore wind, wave and tidal industries – named Chris Hill as programmes director and Charles Thompson as head of communications.

Hill joins from Dublin-based developer Mainstream, which wants to build a wind farm off the coast of Fife, where he was chief operating officer of offshore operations.

Thompson moves to the catapult from defence contractor BAE Systems, where he worked on projects including the Type-45 destroyers and the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.