I joined Ploughshare in February 2023 as I was keen to work at the boundary of the public and private sectors and help propel government inventions across that boundary to create real-world products.
As my substandard eyesight precluded me fulfilling my boyhood dream of becoming an airline pilot, I ended up studying Aeromechanical Systems Engineering at the Royal Military College of Science and then completed a PhD focused on the aerodynamics of insect flight. In 2008, I started work for MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, initially doing quite geeky software coding and operational analysis in the Air and Weapon Systems Department. Over the next 12 years, I worked across a range of roles, including secondments to support operations in Afghanistan and to the Royal Navy’s Maritime Warfare Centre. Highlights of my time in Dstl include low-level flying through the Scottish Highlands on an RAF Hercules aircraft, landing on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Richmond in a Merlin helicopter, and taking off from the deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in an RAF Chinook.
In 2020, I moved to MOD’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) as a regional Innovation Partner, working for three years with inventors across Southeast England from large and small companies and universities to pull their innovative ideas into MOD.
I’m a chartered engineer and a qualified mediator. Outside the office, I live on the edge of (and enjoy walking in) the South Downs National Park. I’ve been married to Lis since 2005, and we had our first child in 2007, our second and third 15 months later, and our fourth in 2015. I’ve been a parish councillor and a governor of our local primary school and am the treasurer and an active member of our church.
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