The sharp pang of guilt Stuart got from accepting a graduate job drilling holes in the ground for an oil company was quickly assuaged by a small annual donation to Greenpeace. However, he never took the position with the oil major because a holiday job with a University spin-out company in Cambridge lasted ten years.
BioRobotics designed and manufactured automated equipment to help molecular geneticists unravel the genome. After casting around looking for something interesting to do next, Stuart and the other founders of BioRobotics started a company called Viridian Solar, designed a beautifully simple roof-integrated solar panel, and built a factory to manufacture them near Cambridge. Viridian has since grown to become one of the leading solar heating companies in the UK.
