(Virtual) Reimagining British Defence 2020 – 2030

Jack is an Infantryman who, in the course of a distinguished career, commanded RMA Sandhurst and NATO Armed Forces North as a 4* General. He has recently been with 3 Division on exercise in North America. Jack has provided invaluable defence insight to Cityforum over the last twelve years and continues to be one of our most valued colleagues and an expert source of knowledge in this field. Jack has chaired a number of Cityforum’s round tables and has played an integral role in the 2018 and 2019 Maximising Intelligent Defence series of round tables and conclaves, developed in association with MOD.

Stephen Hawker is a former senior member of the UK intelligence and security community. Since 2006 he has worked as an independent consultant providing insight to government and the commercial sector in the UK and overseas on national security and intelligence issues. He has also served as a member of the Advisory Board of BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. He is a member of the Security Vetting Appeals Panel (SVAP) and the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives (ACNRA). Stephen has undertaken significant assignments at Board level in the public and private sectors including Capability Reviews of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), benchmarking reviews of overseas security and intelligence services and other capacity building and training in Africa and the Middle East. In 2011 he undertook an independent international review of security clearance arrangements for the government of New Zealand. Stephen has been a Non-Executive Director of FCO Services, Chairman of Critical-Link Ltd and an independent member of the FCO Consular Management Board. He was specialist adviser to the House of Lords sub-committee reviewing the EU’s Internal Security Strategy in 2011 and one of the ‘Critical Friends’ advising the Home Office on security arrangements for the 2012 London Olympics. Stephen serves as Senior Associate of Cityforum and offers guidance across a wide range of its activities.

Ben Hudson is the Chief Technology Officer for BAE Systems and is responsible for leading the company-wide strategy to reinforce and enhance the company’s position as a technology leader through optimising investments in technology and digitisation across the group. Ben has extensive international Defence-sector experience and has developed, delivered and supported complex systems for customers across Australasia, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and North America. Prior to joining BAE Systems, Ben led the global vehicle systems portfolio for Rheinmetall, based in Germany, held senior roles with General Dynamics, based in Switzerland and served as an Officer in the Australian Army, including active service in East Timor.
Ben is a dual Australian and British national with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and holds an MBA from London Business School. Ben is married with two children and when not at work enjoys spending time with his family, flying, honing his woodworking skills and watching rugby.

John C. (Chris) Inglis is a former Deputy Director of the National Security Agency, currently serving as the Looker Distinguished Visiting Professor of Cyber Studies at the United States Naval Academy. He served at NSA or 28 years, including eight years as its Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer, responsible for guiding strategy, operations and policy. A 1976 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and retired Brigadier General in the US Air Force, Mr. Inglis holds the Air Force rating of Command Pilot and advanced degrees in engineering and computer science from Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and the George Washington University. Mr. Inglis is a Managing Director at Paladin Capital Group, a member of the US Defense Science Board and serves on the Boards of Directors for FedEx, and Huntington Bank.

Toby leads the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism’s transformation of mission-led innovation for public safety and security with digital technology and data. He co-founded ACE, the UK’s Accelerated Capability Environment, a Home Office-sponsored partnership between industry, academia and government, to push smart technologies and skills to the front line of law enforcement with operational tempo. He brings industry experience from the national security and resilience sector, combined with public policy development including legislation for investigatory powers and telecommunications regulation and compliance. His professional background is in systems engineering and computer science.

AM Knighton joined the RAF in 1988 as a University Cadet and studied at Clare College Cambridge graduating in 1991. He spent his early career working as an engineer officer on Nimrod and Tornado F3 aircraft and several tours on the Harrier force including being Senior Engineer Officer on 20 Sqn – the Harrier Operational Conversion Unit – at RAF Wittering. After 2 years in this role, including a short stint as Senior Engineer Officer on 1 Squadron in Italy during the Kosovo campaign, he was posted to the Tornado Integrated Project Team as the fleet manager for all marks of Tornado.

He attended Advanced Command and Staff Course in 2003/4 before returning to the Harrier Force, this time as head of the team charged with transforming the way the Harrier was supported by industry. After 18 months in post he was selected to be the Military Assistant to Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Equipment Capability) in MOD. He was promoted to Group Captain in mid-2007 when he became Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff Strategy and Plans at Air Command at RAF High Wycombe. He attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in 2009, after which he took up his appointment as the RAF’s Logistics Force Commander and Station Commander at RAF Wittering.

In 2011 he was promoted to Air Commodore and became Head of Finance and Military Capability (Air) in the MOD before setting up and leading the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Programme in 2014. In January 2015 he was promoted to Air Vice-Marshal and appointed as the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff. In this role he oversaw the development of the RAF’s strategy and the planning for the RAF’s Centenary celebrations. He became Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Capability and Force Design) in 2017. He held this role for a little under 2 years before he was promoted to Air Marshal and appointed to his current role as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Military Capability).

Air Marshal Knighton is married to Caitlin, who is a partner in a large law firm in Cambridge; they have 2 teenage daughters. He is President of Combined Services and RAF Powerlifting and President of RAF Hockey and the RAF Winter Sports Federation. Away from work he maintains his pilot’s licence, is a keen skier, a below-average sportsman, and would like to do more sailing!

Lt Gen Rob Magowan CB CBE assumed post as Deputy Commander Strategic Command in January 2020. His responsibilities include leading Multi-Domain Integration; developing and delivering UKStratCom’s Strategy, Command Plan, Programmes and Policy; and he is the TLB’s Principal Personnel Officer. He spent almost 3 years in Head Office as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Capability) and as Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Capability and Force Design). Between 2016 and 2017 he served as Commandant General Royal Marines.
He is an active mountaineer, enjoys reading European political history, and is a keen amateur cook.

Tim is the inaugural Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) and Head of the IfM’s Centre for Technology Management (CTM). His research, teaching and engagement activities are focused on the links between manufacturing and innovation.

Since joining the University of Cambridge in 2002, Tim has played a very active role in the development of innovation and technology management activities across the University. He also works closely with companies in the Cambridge cluster, the largest and most successful technology cluster in Europe.

Tim was appointed as Head of the IfM in 2017 and is a member of the board of directors for IfM Education and Consultancy Services Ltd and St John’s Innovation Centre Ltd, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness (ITEC) at Doshisha University in Japan, and a member of the IET's Innovation and Emerging Technologies Policy Panel. He is a member of advisory / steering committees for groups including ideaSpace, Cambridge i-Teams and 100% Open. Tim is a Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge, where he is also the Director of Innovation and Engineering Outreach.

He is a recipient of a University of Cambridge Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence and a Royal Academy of Engineering/ExxonMobil Excellence in Teaching Award. He is also actively involved in outreach activities to raise awareness of engineering and manufacturing among primary and secondary school children and their teachers.

Before joining the University, he was a Project Manager at St John's Innovation Centre, where he worked on a series of projects to support industry / academic collaboration focused around new technology ventures. Prior to working at St John's Innovation Centre, he worked as a teacher, consultant, plant engineer and freelance writer in the UK, Australia and Japan. He has B.Eng. from Aston University and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering.

Madeleine Moon was an MP until 2019 and represented the Bridgend constituency in South East Wales at Westminster from 2005. She served on several select committees, joining the Defence Select Committee in 2009. During her time as a member, she chaired two sub-committees, producing reports on the safety and welfare of Armed Forces personnel on training exercises and defence in the Arctic. Madeleine was elected as President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in November 2018 and was a member of the UK Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly from 2010, serving as a member of the Defence and Security Committee. Madeleine is playing an active role in the Cityforum defence work which has been supported by BAE Systems.

Aileen has been Director of MHCLG & Local Government VFM at the NAO since 2013. She has published reports to Parliament on the financial sustainability of local authorities, with an upcoming report on Local authority commercial investments. She has also reported regularly on adult social care, most recently focused on the halting progress on integrating health and social care, the interface between health and social care highlighting that despite 20 years of trying, integration is unresolved. On housing, she has published Housing in England: an overview, Homelessness in England, Planning for New Homes and Help to Buy. A regular commentator on the sector, she has recently been appointed to an honorary professorship at Durham University.

Vivienne Nathanson qualified at Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London in 1978 and then spent five and a half years in various hospital medical posts before joining the British Medical Association (BMA) staff in 1984. Dr Nathanson was appointed as Scottish Secretary (Chief Executive) for the BMA 1990 – 1995 and then as Head of Central Services and International Affairs 1995 – 1996. She then became Director of Professional Activities at the BMA, which encompassed all the professional areas of work of the BMA including Ethics, Equal Opportunities and International Affairs. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by Strathclyde University. In 2008 she was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and in 2013 she was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health. She lectures at University College London with Professor Sir Michael Marmot. She is an Associate of Cityforum and has participated in a number of its projects in the security, defence, policing and data areas.

Air Marshal Edward Stringer is the Director General of Joint Force Development, and DG Defence Academy, within Joint Forces Command. For those familiar with military terminology he is the de facto ‘J7’ for the UK’s Military Strategic Headquarters. For those not so steeped, he owns the conceptual element of UK fighting power: concepts & doctrine, training & education, exercise & experimentation, lessons learned & innovation. Before that he was Assistant CDS (Operations) in the MOD in Whitehall, essentially the MOD’s operations director – from UK flood-relief to the Deterrent. Previously he had been ACAS, the RAF’s Assistant Chief, responsible for all policy interaction with MOD and for the RAF Board’s business. He arrived there from seeing the inside of the Pentagon as CDS’ Liaison Officer to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. A previous Commandant Air Warfare Centre and head of RAF Intelligence he has had operational commands in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans. A one time Jaguar pilot and weapons instructor (QWI) he first saw action in the Gulf War in ’91 and in the no-fly zone (NFZ) operations that followed.

Libby is a transformation strategist whose experience spans Oil and Gas, Maritime, Security and Defence Sectors. For the last 5 years Libby has been involved with some of the largest industrial transformation programmes, defining, guiding and supporting change through the uptake and implementation of digitally enabling and disruptive technologies. Libby began her professional career with the British Army (Royal Signals) after leaving school during the early 1990s to work on a programme for novel communications. Keen to pursue academic qualifications, Libby successfully applied for an undergraduate degree at the University of St. Andrews, studying Geology over the forthcoming years to honours, achieving a 2:1 in 1999. Further postgraduate study saw Libby complete her Master’s Degree at the University of Aberdeen, in Applied Petroleum Geology, delivering her thesis whilst working with ExxonMobil as a Geophysics on the Beryl Field seismic inversion studies in 2000. Post study, Libby spent almost two decades working in the Oil and Gas (Exploration & Production) Sector, predominantly with Schlumberger as a Geophysicist. This privileged role provided the opportunity to work with many of the major Oil and Gas operating companies, across multiple global locations, and in the latter years allowed Libby to broaden her portfolio of skills into Technical Sales, Program Management, Marketing, and Digital Transformation. During this period Libby also served as a Director of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB), a charity, enriching the learning opportunities for those choosing careers in geoscience. This work led to Libby be voted into the Geological Society as a Fellow, in 2012. Early 2017 gave rise to Libby’s first change in career direction away from the Oil and Gas environment, and into the maritime industry. Here Libby spent eighteen months with Lloyd’s Register, defining the strategy for digital transformation within the maritime sector, as well as supporting the commercial development of digitally enabled products delivered by Lloyd’s Register. In late 2018, the opportunity to completely transition away from a professional environment of mainstream and peripheral oil and gas activity arose when Libby embarked on a role with BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. Plunged into the world of cyber resilience and national security, Libby’s skills to facilitate collaboration, and build out complex strategies was recognised by BAE Systems Air Sector, when in 2019 Libby was offered the role of Head of Air Labs. Libby’s role as Head of Air Labs see her defining a digitally transformative programme of activities to create a virtualised, collaborative engineering environment, ensuring BAE Systems is future-proofed as a Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) for current, and novel strategic programmes within the Air Sector. Libby is now looking forward to a return to the Military as a Reservist with 77th Brigade, within the Information Activities Group, having successfully completing her Briefing and Assessment at Thatcham in late 2019. In addition Libby’s belief in life-long learning, and the continued need to challenges oneself with new thinking sees her begin the Undergraduate Certificate at Cambridge University (Institute of Continued Education) in International Relations.

Lieutenant General Richard Wardlaw was appointed Chief of Defence Logistics and Support in October 2019. As CDLS, he is the Functional Owner for Support and is responsible for driving fundamental changes in how logistics and support is delivered across Defence. He is also Colonel of The Queen's Gurkha Engineers, Chairman of the Royal Engineers Officers' Widows Society and a Trustee of the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
His previous role from December 2016 was Director Basing and Infrastructure (Army) where he was responsible for planning and managing investment in the Army estate and leading as Senior Responsible Owner the Army Basing Programme (ABP) and the Army-facing Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) Programmes. As Chief of Staff of HQ Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) from September 15, he spearheaded concept development for the enhanced NATO Response Force (eNRF) and the NATO Readiness Action Plan. Through deployment to Latvia, he prepared the HQ for its commitment as the inaugural Very High Readiness Land Component Command for eNRF17. General Staff appointments prior to this included Director Plans (Army) in July 2014, where he was responsible as Programme Director for the delivery of Army 2020; Chief Engineer HQ ARRC from September 2012 where he led the development of theatre level concepts for the Comprehensive Approach; and Assistant Director Manning from 2009 where he managed the Army Redundancy Programme following SDSR10. He commanded 36 Engineer Regiment from September 2007, deploying on Op HERRICK 7 which included the Brigade operation to re-take Musa Qaleh. Other earlier posts include: Chief Plans for Multi-National Division (SE) on Op TELIC 6 and 7, planning and initiating the reinstatement of provincial Iraqi control; Military Assistant to Chief of Staff (Land); and Officer Commanding 20 Field Squadron 36 Engineer Regiment deploying on Op TELIC 1. In his early career he served in England, Germany, Northern Ireland, Brunei, the Falkland Islands, Bosnia and Hong Kong filling a variety of staff and regimental duty posts. He completed the Major Project Leadership Academy at Saïd Business School in 2018, Higher Command and Staff Course in 2010, the Advanced Command and Staff Course in 2002 and an MSc in Defence Technology in 2001. He has a BEng in Production Engineering from the University of Nottingham. He was awarded the QCVS in 2007 and 2009 following his tours of Iraq and Afghanistan and was appointed OBE in 2012. He is married to Judith and they have two young teenage girls. When their interests allow he enjoys off-shore sailing, mountain-biking and DIY.