Will was one of the original founding members of the SGAC, taking part in the original Space Generation Forum in 1999 as part of the UNISPACE III conference. That makes him the last original member to hold an official position, and also the longest serving SGAC officer ever. Will was co-secretary of the organisation from 2002-2005, European Regional Representative from 2005-2006, and co-chairperson from 2006-2008.
From 1999-2000 Will was Chair of the Philosophy Sub-Committee of the SGAC. In 2002 and 2003 he coordinated the SGAC input on the well-received European Space Policy Green Paper as well as securing $5000 in funding for the project. Will was very active in policy, coordinating input to Space Policy Summit in Houston in 2002, and in 2003 providing input SGAC to the UK Space Policy. In 2007 he helped coordinate and present SGAC input on 50 Year Visions of space at the Boston University Symposium to mark the 50th Anniversary of spaceflight.
Through 2000 to 2004 Will was Vice Chairman of Cosmos Education, an independent non-profit organization also formed out of UNISPACE III, and took part in their Under African Skies project along with several other SGAC founding members.
Will was one of the founders and co-organizers of the first Space Generation Summit (SGS) in Houston in 2002, which was part of the World Space Congress. He also attended most of the annual Space Generation Congresses that followed SGS, acting as a working group lead in Vancouver, Valencia, and Hyderabad.
Will played an instrumental role in finding financial support for the organisation’s operation, securing over $200,000 in donations and project grants during his tenure. Furthermore, Will was also a significant personal donor to SGAC, making generous donations in recent years to support specific projects.
Some of Will’s other achievements include, along with his previous fellow co-chairs, to establish the first SGAC office, based in Vienna, Austria, the development of our intern program and the creation of our current staff positions, the Officer position in Vienna and our first SGAC Executive Director position.
Following on from Will's departure is Ben Baseley-Walker, who was elected to join Alex Karl as co-chair of the Council.
Once again we thank Will for his long-term commitment to SGAC, for helping build and maintain its vision, and for his inspirational leadership over the last 2 years in his role as co-chair person.
We wish him all the best for his personal and professional future.
Ad astra.
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