Julia Glenn is chief executive of Suffolk-based Extremis Technology, a fledgling company which designs portable shelters to house people hit by natural disasters. Sheline Clarke went to meet her.
Based at Orbis Energy in Lowestoft and with a second address in Cambridge as part of the University’s EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), Extremis Technology has filed a global patent for its product Hush2, which has the potential to transform the lives of people hit by hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Hush2, a word blend of hurricane shelter, is at the prototype phase and is being developed in partnerships with local builders RG Carters and Ridgeons timber and builders merchants and which will be deployed for live trials later this year.
It is an exciting time for the company and its management team, headed by Julia Glenn.
After starting her career as a software developer and moving into international banking, Julia became vice president at Credit Suisse and moved out of technology and into new business, working on setting up trading products in international markets.
The decision to move her family out of London and back to her native East Anglia came in 2009 when her youngest son was ill and she needed to spend more time with her family.
In 2011 she won the MBA scholarship for the Norwich Business School and started lecturing at the university, which was when she was approached by the founding partners of Extremis, inventor David Watson and chairman Mark Aspinall, to join the team, along with chief operating
officer Andrew Gowen.
“Forming a management team is all about attracting investment and getting the product to market,” said Julia, “and to commercialise the whole way of thinking.
“It’s about getting people to buy into the story and be enthused by it. We ourselves have this enthusiasm and it is infectious and ultimately we believe in this.”
David’s original idea for his Hush shelters came as a direct result of seeing images of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake of 2010.
The Hush1 is a portable flat packed transitional shelter for use in disaster relief areas not prone to hurricane force winds. The shelter can be mounted on seismic isolators to provide some protection in earthquake zones. In addition, the cladding material can be adapted to suit local cultural requirements.
The Hush2 is a more robust version of the Hush1 and is designed to withstand hurricane force winds. In the event of high winds, the accommodation can be remodelled into a ‘super cell’ which will withstand gusts of 200mph.
The shelters will be built from marine ply and will have a life span of between 10-15 years.
“Hush2 will be the first to market because we feel from a patent and engineering point of view it’s the star in the crown because it can save people’s lives,” said Julia, “and enable us to house people in a meaningful and humane way.
“The shelters are flat packed and folded and can be assembled without tools, you don’t need hammers or component parts and fixing; the bolts are intrinsic which is important because in an emergency economy small parts can be traded and tend to disappear.
“Once we can get them in the field I am sure we will find all sorts of things from a user point of view that we can improve, from the softer side of the experience like noise and heat control and that’s all part of the R&D plan.”
Ultimately, the company’s customers are charities and governments and Julia hopes that the New Year will start to bring in sales as the Hush2 goes into production, initially in the UK with plans for mass production closer to deployment sites as the company grows.
Sustainability is key.
“Aid now is less about giving people ‘things’. It is about giving something that is the start of a story. One of the most important things when a community is displaced is for its economy to return to profitability and become liquid again in terms of cash flow.
“So if we provide a shelter, it can be repaired and maintained by local craftsmen using local materials who will be paid for that work, or perhaps it will need termite proofing, a local expert can do that and the money goes straight into the local economy.
“From my point of view, as a person who has been involved in business and economies all their life, the idea of stimulating micro economies and local cash flow is an area of real interest.”
The shelters are sustainable on other levels too. On site, they will help build communities because they can modularise and be repurposed into clinics or day centres, or ultimately chopped up for fire wood.
“This needs to be run as a business,” said Julia, “in order to run efficiently and to attract the right investment and the right funding. It’s not about getting filthy rich; any profit will go back into R&D.
“It’s about making a difference, to give a family some normality and dignity and give children a place to play. That’s what motivates me.”
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