Matt Wroughton, Group Sales Director, and Simon Hill, Chief Technology Officer at Excelerate Technology Group reflect on 25 years in business.
For 25 years, Excelerate Technology Group has focused on a challenge that becomes most important when conventional infrastructure is under pressure: keeping emergency responders connected. From its beginnings in specialist satellite communications, the company has developed technologies supporting command, communications and situational awareness across emergency services and other critical operations. Fire Buyer speaks with Group Sales Director Matt Wroughton, a former firefighter, and Chief Technology Officer Simon Hill, who has spent more than two decades with Excelerate, about the company’s evolution, the changing communications landscape, and how resilient connectivity is helping fire and rescue services make informed decisions when it matters most.
Please introduce yourselves and your backgrounds.
Matt: My career started on the frontline as a firefighter with West Midlands Fire Service, where I spent more than a decade working in operational and leadership roles, including research and development and multi-agency emergency response initiatives. Those experiences gave me a first-hand understanding of the challenges emergency responders face when communications fail, or information is unavailable at critical moments. After moving into technology and public safety solutions, I worked extensively across emergency services and government sectors before joining Excelerate, and later Zebra Technologies, helping organisations modernise their operational capabilities. Today, as Group Sales Director back at Excelerate, I work with customers across the UK and internationally to deliver resilient connectivity and situational awareness solutions that enable better decision-making in the most demanding environments.
Simon: I have spent more than 20 years with Excelerate and have had the privilege of growing alongside the business. I began as a Field Installation Engineer and progressed through a variety of technical, operational and leadership roles before becoming Chief Technology Officer. Throughout that journey I have focused on developing communications solutions that work when conventional networks cannot. My experience spans satellite communications, mobile communications, RF technologies, VSAT systems and service delivery, all centred on solving real-world operational challenges for emergency services, government agencies and critical infrastructure organisations.
Excelerate is celebrating 25 years of business this year. Could you take us back to the beginning and explain how the company came to be?
Simon: Excelerate was founded with a very clear vision: to provide reliable communications where conventional networks could not. In the early 2000s there was a growing need for resilient, deployable communications, particularly for emergency responders and organisations operating in remote or challenging environments.
What started as a specialist satellite communications business evolved into a global provider of integrated connectivity solutions. Over the years, we pioneered deployable communications on command-and-control vehicles and developed capabilities that enable organisations to rapidly establish secure communications wherever they are needed. Today, that heritage remains central to who we are.
Matt: What is particularly impressive is that the company has never lost sight of its core purpose. While the technologies have changed dramatically, the mission has remained the same: keeping people connected when it matters most.
For emergency services, that commitment has meant continuously innovating while maintaining an unwavering focus on reliability and operational effectiveness.
