Ramsey Faragher to chair Royal Institute of Navigation

Ramsey Faragher takes over as director of the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) on 1 January.

Dr Faragher will be taking up the mantle from John Pottle, who has led the Institute for eight years.

Dr Faragher, who founded Cambridge-based global navigation satellite system technology company Focal Point Positioning in 2015, currently chairs the RIN’s technical committee.

Dr Faragher said: “I have been working with John on handover for the last few weeks, and had not really had the chance before now to fully take stock of the incredible activities of the almost 100 people that work for the RIN across all of our staff, committees, subcommittees, special interest groups, branches, working groups, technical advisory boards, conferencing teams, publishing teams, executive function, and more.

“All of this is powered by more than 1600 members, by our highly-respected journal, by our corporate, university and government partners, and by the kind donations and legacies of our supporters.”

Dr Faragher added: “The RIN's growing role in being your continuous learning and development partner in PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) is one that I have a clear view on how to expand further. RIN’s ongoing engagements in delivering guidance materials that set standards and policies on an international stage are also an area where RIN is well poised for further impact and growth. Our growth in these areas and more will all be building directly on the excellent foundations that John and his team have put in place, and that I am now inheriting.”

The founder and former CEO (until 2021), president and executive director of Focal Point Conditioning, which was incorporated in 2015, graduated with a BA and MSc degrees in experimental and theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge in 2004.

On completing his PhD, Faragher worked for BAE Systems where he was a technical lead for a number of navigation, tracking, and sensor fusion programmes, building on expertise in GPS-denied navigation using novel methods including opportunistic radio signals. He also developed the award-winning NAVSOP (Navigation Via Signals of Opportunity) positioning suite.

Faragher founded Focal Point Positioning in 2015 with members of the original NAVSOP team. He is a Bye-Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge.