# Will Marshall

> Will Marshall is a British physicist and co-founder, CEO and chairperson of Planet Labs PBC. A former NASA/USRA scientist and PhoneSat co-principal investigator based in San Francisco, he helped build a daily Earth-imaging business with Robbie Schingler and Chris Boshuizen. He now advocates combining satellite archives and AI to make changes on Earth easier to understand and act on.

- **Role:** Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson at Planet Labs PBC
- **Organizations:** Planet Labs PBC, NASA Ames Research Center, Universities Space Research Association
- **Nationality:** British
- **Education:** Master’s in Physics with Space Science and Technology, University of Leicester, Doctorate in Physics, University of Oxford
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Planet’s daily Earth-observation business., Co-principal investigator of NASA’s PhoneSat project., Worked on NASA lunar missions LADEE and LCROSS.

## Career timeline

- **2001** — Met Robbie Schingler at a UN-organized space conference in Graz, Austria, as recalled in How I Built This.
- **Before Planet** — NASA/USRA scientist; worked on PhoneSat, LADEE, LCROSS and space-debris research. Also held postdoctoral fellowships at George Washington University and Harvard.
- **2010** — Co-founded Planet with Robbie Schingler and Chris Boshuizen.
- **2014** — Presented Planet’s small satellites at TED.
- **2017** — Planet achieved daily imaging coverage of Earth’s landmass.
- **2018** — Returned to TED with a searchable-Earth vision and introduced Planet Stories.
- **2021** — Led Planet through its New York Stock Exchange listing.
- **2024** — Joint recipient with Robbie Schingler of the Royal Photographic Society Award for Environmental Responsibility.
- **2026** — Published Planetary Intelligence and promoted AI access to satellite data.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Planet’s daily Earth-observation business.
- Co-principal investigator of NASA’s PhoneSat project.
- Worked on NASA lunar missions LADEE and LCROSS.
- Joint recipient of the 2024 Royal Photographic Society Award for Environmental Responsibility.
- Delivered TED talks in 2014 and 2018.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Planet’s news index lists an October 20 Pelican-12 launch and an October 21 NASA CSDA evaluation task order for Tanager hyperspectral data.
- **2026-10** — Planet announced the October 1 launch of Suncatcher, Tanager-2 and 18 SuperDoves.
- **2026-09** — Planet announced the Amazon.ia biodiversity initiative on September 23.
- **2026-09** — September 3 results reported $116.1 million quarterly revenue, 58% annual growth and a $9.4 million GAAP net loss. Planet AI had entered open beta.
- **2026-07** — Presented Planetary Intelligence at the ITU AI for Good Summit.
- **2026-05** — Published the Planetary Intelligence essay on May 27.

## Links

- Website: https://will4planet.substack.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-marshall-planet
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Will4Planet

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/will-marshall
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-23