Speakers
REAR ADMIRAL C J PARRY CBE MA FCMI
Formerly DG, Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre and Director, Strategic Forecasting
Chris Parry was educated at the Portsmouth Grammar School and read Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford. He joined the Royal Navy as a Seaman Officer and subsequently sub-specialised in aviation, operating from carriers and surface combatants. He was mentioned in despatches during the Falklands war and received the 1983 Prince Philip Helicopter Rescue Award from the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.
After appointments in Defence Policy at the Ministry of Defence and in command of the air defence destroyer HMS GLOUCESTER, he commanded the Maritime Warfare Centre from 1996 to 1998 and was responsible for the teaching and evolution of Joint and maritime doctrine, tactical development and operational analysis. After the Royal College of Defence Studies in London, he returned to sea in January 2000 in command of HMS FEARLESS and as Flag Captain to the Amphibious Task Group. From April 2001, as a Commodore and as Director Operational Capability in the Ministry of Defence, he was directly responsible to Ministers and the Chiefs of Staff for the provision of independent assessments of operational capability and lessons from operations. In September 2003, he took command of the UK's Amphibious Task Group and NATO's UK/Netherlands Amphibious Task Group. On promotion to Flag rank in January 2005, he formed the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre and spent 3 years as its Director General. Here, he supervised a major revision of UK Joint thinking, together with the associated concepts and doctrine, and the widely acclaimed DCDC Strategic Trends programme.
He is currently gainfully and fully employed as a consultant, writer, broadcaster and lecturer, specialising in strategic change, forecasting and geopolitics. He has published, broadcasted and lectured on historic, Security and Defence themes and has contributed strongly to every Defence options exercise, cost study and review since 1989. Apart from his family, his interests include medieval and military history, hill-walking and sport; he represented both the University of Oxford and the Royal Navy at Rugby Union and is currently President of a Rugby League Club. A Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute and the Chartered Management Institute, he is also a member of the Institute of Directors and the Oxford Research Group.
Dr. Delores M. Etter
ONR Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology
Electrical Engineering Department
United States Naval Academy
Dr. Delores M. Etter joined the Electrical Engineering faculty at Southern Methodist University (SMU) on June 2, 2008. She holds the Texas Instruments Distinguished Chair in Engineering Education, and is the Director of the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education. Dr. Etter holds a joint appointment in the Computer Science Department, and is a Senior Fellow of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies. Her research interests include digital signal processing and biometric signal processing, with an emphasis on identification using iris recognition. She has also written a number of textbooks on computer languages and software engineering.
Dr. Etter previously held the Office of Naval Research Distinguished Chair in the Electrical/Computer Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy. She was a member of the Naval Academy's faculty from 2001 to 2008. She was formerly a member of the Electrical /Computer Engineering Departments at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1990-98), and at the University of New Mexico (1980-89). She was also a Visiting Professor in the Information Systems Laboratory at Stanford University in 1983-84.
Dr. Etter has also held two senior executive positions in the Department of Defense. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition (ASN RDA) from Nov 2005 through Nov 2007, Dr. Etter was the Senior Acquisition Executive for the Navy and the Marine Corps. She was also the Senior Acquisition Executive for several Joint programs, including the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAP). She was responsible for strategic planning and program execution and evaluation across the Department's broad range of programs. Her leadership focused on a set of four key portfolios: ships (included surface ships, carriers, and submarines), air programs (included strike aircraft, tactical aircraft, rotorcraft, unmanned aircraft, and missiles), expeditionary warfare (included land vehicles, amphibious vehicles, and body armor), and C4I/integrated warfare systems (included command/control/communication systems, mission computing systems, radars, gun systems, and satellites). Dr. Etter also provided critical leadership in a number of significant areas including Open Architecture (OA), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and technical workforce revitalization. Key responsibilities as ASN RDA included frequent interactions with Congress, industry leaders, and international partners. The Department of the Navy recently renamed their outstanding research awards as the Dr. Delores M. Etter Top Scientists and Engineers Awards.
From June 1998 through July 2001, Dr. Etter served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology. In that position, she was responsible for Defense Science and Technology strategic planning, budget allocation, and program execution and evaluation for the DoD Science and Technology Program. Dr. Etter was the Principal U.S. representative to the NATO Research and Technology Board. She was responsible for the Defense Modeling and Simulation Organization, the High Performance Computing Modernization Office, and for technical oversight of the Software Engineering Institute. Dr. Etter was also the senior civilian in charge of the DoD high-energy laser research program.
GENERAL SIR JOHN DEVERELL KCB OBE FRSA FINSTCPD
Former Commander NATO Armed Forces North
General Deverell left the Army in March 2004. An Infantryman, he commanded at every level up to and including Brigade and has spent much of his career involved in operations and training. His final appointment was as Commander in Chief Allied Forces North. In this appointment he was responsible for establishing the first NATO Response Force, the accession and integration of new NATO nations and the training and subsequent operational direction of the NATO International Security and Advisory Force in Afghanistan. This and six months as Deputy Commander (Operations) SFOR in Bosnia has given gave him considerable experience of multi-national operations. He engages in defence and security consultancy through JFD Solutions Ltd of which he is the Chairman, typist and teaboy, and has acted as a senior mentor on behalf of UK MOD and NATO for exercises and studies.
TONY EDWARDS BSc MBA CEng FRAeS
Chairman, The Air League and former Head of DESO
Tony Edwards is Visiting Professor at The Defence College of Science and Technology (Cranfield University) and President of The British Aircraft Preservation Society. He has retired as Chairman of The Air League, is Past President of the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC). He is a trustee of the Fly Royal Navy Heritage Trust, the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust and the RAF Museum where he is Chairman of the Fundraising Committee. He is Vice President of the Guild of Aviation Artists.
Mr Edwards is Past President of the Royal Aeronautical Society and past Chairman of the Defence and Aerospace Sector Panel of the UK Technology Foresight programme. He was a member of the Aviation Committee for the Department of Trade and Industry and a member of the National Defence Industries Council.
Born in 1944, Mr Edwards was Head of Defence Export Services, at the UK Ministry of Defence, arriving in this post from being Chairman, TI Group Aerospace, and a Main Board Director of TI Group plc.
As Chairman of TI Group Aerospace he was responsible for sales of some £600 million. The division held world leadership positions in propellers and aircraft engine components and niche market leadership in hydraulics, actuation and aerostructures.
Mr Edwards became Chief Executive of Dowty Aerospace and a Main Board Director of TI Group in 1992. In 1994 he was additionally appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Messier-Dowty International, the aircraft landing gear joint venture into which TI Group and Snecma Group merged their respective landing gear businesses. Following the sale of TI Group's interest in Messier-Dowty to Snecma in 1998, Mr Edwards joined the Board of Messier-Dowty International.
From 1962 to 1967, Mr Edwards gained an engineering apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce Aero Engines and read Production Engineering at the University of Birmingham. From 1968 to 1989, Mr Edwards held senior managerial positions with General Electric (USA), Motorola and Canadair Aerospace Group of Bombardier. He joined Lucas Industries plc in 1989 as Managing Director - Aerospace, subsequently becoming Group Managing Director. At various times during these years he lived and worked in the United States, Canada and Denmark. During a fourteen year career in General Electric he completed an MBA with distinction at Harvard Business School, subsequently joining the faculty as Lecturer on Production and Operations Management.
His recreations include farming, classic car restoration and historic aircraft preservation.
Mr Murray Easton
Managing Director Submarines, BAE Systems
In June of 2002 Murray joined BAE SYSTEMS, as Managing Director Marine in the Sea Systems Group. The company has since restructured its Sea Systems Group into three business units, and has appointed Murray as Managing Director Submarines. In this role Murray is totally responsible for the delivery of the Astute Class nuclear hunter killer submarines and, in 2005, his company delivered the final SSK Upholder class submarine to Canada. Murray is also responsible for all the sites on which these programmes are based.
Murray has strongly promoted and achieved a much improved working relationship with the MoD, at many levels, and a major contract, Astute, which was 3.5 years late and £760M over spent in 2003 when he took over, is now recognised as being in control and holding the same tight schedule created four years before, and generating good financial returns. Overhead reduction, major productivity improvement across the business, implementation of automotive lean principles and a thorough cross-company cultural change programme has generated much improved motivation and confidence by both employees and customer alike.
Partly as a result of these improvements, the Submarine Business unit is now the focal point for the design and build of the Trident (SSBN) Successor and will engineer and build a major section of the CVF (Carrier). The undoubted technical capabilities of the business are also now being sought overseas by several companies.
Murray was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2006 and a CBE in the recent New Year’s Honours.
Mr Gerald Howarth MP
Shadow Minister for Defence
In 1982 Gerald was elected a Councillor for Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow and served as Shadow Vice-Chairman of the Environmental Planning Committee.
In 1983 he was elected Member of Parliament for the former coal-mining constituency of Cannock and Burntwood, Staffordshire, Labour's 50th most marginal seat which he held until 1992, becoming the only Conservative to hold Cannock for 2 terms.
Gerald's first official appointment was as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Spicer MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy (1987-90), then Minister of State for the Department of the Environment (1990-91). Gerald then became PPS to Margaret Thatcher from December 1991 to April 1992.
Between 1983 and 1992 he was an officer of the Conservative Parliamentary Aviation Committee, and was a Founder Member of the No Turning Back Group.
In 1993, a year after losing his seat in Staffordshire, Gerald was selected as the candidate for Aldershot where he succeeded Sir Julian Critchley in 1997. Since then, he has served on the Home Affairs Select Committee (1997-2001) and as Vice-Chairman of the Defence Select Committee (2001-03). For a while he was a member of the Executive of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers.
Since 2002 he has served as a Shadow Defence Minister with responsibility for defence procurement and the Royal Air Force.
In addition to his frontbench duties Gerald is also Convenor (Chairman) of the all party RAF Group, an officer of the Parliamentary Aerospace Group, Chairman of the 92 Group of Conservative MPs, and an active member of the all-party Kashmir group. He is also a regular contributor to the all party Photography group's annual exhibition. He is President of the Air Display Association (which represents those who organise and participate in air shows around the UK and Europe) and in 2006 became a trustee of the Vulcan To the Sky project which is restoring to flying condition a Vulcan bomber.
Apart from defence, he takes a keen interest in home affairs issues, family issues, the media and industry.
Mr Victor Chavez
Vice President - Business Development, Marketing & Sales, Thales UK and Co-Chair of the NDIC Strategy Group on TLCM
Victor Chavez is VP - Business Development, Marketing & Sales for Thales UK with responsibility for the coordination of all business capture activity in the UK. He has particular responsibility for the business development for major UK programmes - defence, aerospace and civil - and the coordination of the export activities of the Thales businesses in the UK.
Victor joined Thomson-CSF in 1999 as the Business Development Director responsible for UK defence programmes, a role which expanded substantially with the acquisition of Racal in 2000. In 2004 he was appointed Director - Business Development, Sales & Marketing for Land & Joint Systems Division and in 2006 he was appointed to his current role.
Prior to joining Thomson-CSF, Victor fulfilled a number of roles within EDS Defence Ltd working closely with UK MOD in a wide range of technical, management consultancy and major programme management roles in the C4ISTAR domain.
Victor graduated in Physics from the University of York in 1984, followed in 1993 by an MSc in Satellite Engineering & Telecommunications at the University of Surrey.
Victor is married and has two young daughters. His interests include mountain biking, walking, photography, cooking and travel.
SIR ANTHONY BAGNALL GBE KCB FRAeS
Air Chief Marshal Sir Anthony Bagnall was born in 1945. He joined the Royal Air Force as a cadet in 1964, and after graduating as a pilot, he went on to fly Lightning, Phantom and Tornado F3 aircraft. He held command appointments in every rank - most notably at the helm of Nos 43 and 23 Squadrons; thereafter, he became Station Commander at Royal Air Force Leuchars. His final command flying appointment was as Air Officer Commanding No 11 Group when he was responsible for all aspects of the United Kingdom's air defence forces. On the ground, he served as ADC to the late Sir Andrew Humphrey; he subsequently worked in MOD and later at HQ Strike Command when he was awarded the OBE for his contribution to operations during the Falkland Islands conflict.
A graduate of the Royal Air Force Staff College and the Royal College of Defence Studies, he filled the key 2 star level appointment of Assistant Chief of the Air staff from 1992 to 1994 which brought with it membership of the Air Force Board and particular responsibility for strategic planning for his Service; this tour led to the award of a CB. Subsequently, he served for 2 years in NATO as the Deputy Commander of Allied Forces Central Region before becoming Air Member for Personnel with responsibility for Royal Air Force training and manpower. Thereafter, he became Commander in Chief of Strike Command with budgetary, resource and operational responsibility for the Royal Air Force's front line. His final tour as Vice Chief of the Defence Staff brought with it membership of key defence committees including: the Defence Council, the Chiefs of Staff Committee, the Investment Advisory Board, the Change Delivery Group and several more. He was knighted whilst working in NATO and awarded a GBE during his tour as the longest serving Vice Chief of Defence Staff. His particular interests relate to leading and managing change, international relations and managing large and diverse organisations. Following his retirement from the Royal Air Force in July 2005, he became a member of the Court of St Andrews University. Thereafter, in 2006, he became chairman of the global Defence Advisory Council for EDS, a large US company; in addition, he now acts as a consultant to a number of other international companies.
A member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the Royal Air Force Club, Sir Anthony is married to Pamela. His hobbies include golf, bridge and walking.
Major General Bill Robins
Visiting Professor, Cranfield University
Biography to follow shortly
Mr William C Anderson
Assistant Secretary for Installations, Environment and Logistics, US Air Force
William C. "Bill" Anderson is President and Chief Executive Officer of Anderson Global Innovation Group, Ltd., a firm specializing in energy technology commercialization, environmental sustainability, real estate asset optimization and business development.
Most recently, Bill served as Assistant Secretary of the United States Air Force for Installations, Environment and Logistics, and the Air Force's Senior Energy Executive, based at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. As Assistant Secretary, he led an organization with responsibilities that included installations, military construction, base closure and realignment; environment, energy, safety and occupational health issues; and all logistical matters.
Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Bill is a graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and earned his law degree with honors from Syracuse University. He has also studied in the master's program for international business at the University of Miami. Bill is a member of the Maryland and Florida Bars.
Bill previously served in a variety of financial and tax consulting positions at Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Arthur Anderson & Co., and Ryder Systems, Inc. He then joined the General Electric Company holding a variety of positions, including Tax Counsel, General Counsel and Director of Environmental and Quality Affairs for General Electric's electrical products business in Europe. He returned to the U.S. as their General Manager and Senior Counsel, Environmental Health and Safety.
An avid bicyclist, he organized the U.S. Air Force Cycling Classic, an internationally sanctioned annual pro cycling event in Arlington, VA.
Mr Robert Hayes
UK Director, Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments
Robert Hayes is UK Director of the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments; a small group established to give high level support and advice to governments on the threats and opportunities posed by emerging technologies.
Robert has over thirty years experience working for the UK Government in senior positions in the law enforcement, security and intelligence community; he has also been a Senior Civil Servant in two UK Government Departments.
Prior to joining Microsoft he was Head of the UK National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) which is the primary provider of lawful interception and specialist computer forensic services to UK agencies. NTAC works in partnership with industry and government agencies, in the UK and elsewhere, and provides policy advice, and a technology and communications watch capability to the UK Government.
Previously he was Head of the UK National Specialist Law Enforcement Centre (NSLEC) which is a multi-agency organisation developing specialist covert and computer based investigative techniques and training programmes for UK law enforcement agencies. NSLEC works in partnership with other international agencies on trans-national programmes.
Robert had a full and varied police career, mostly in and around Cambridgeshire, including ten years as a hostage negotiator, and ultimately attaining the rank of Assistant Chief Constable.
Robert holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and is a Fellow of the British Computer Society; he lives in Cambridgeshire, and is married with one daughter.