CBE MA, BEng(Hons), CEng, FIET, FCMI, MBCS
Chris is OneWeb’s Vice President for Defence & Security and Chief Information Security Officer. He retired from the Royal Air Force as a 2* Air Vice-Marshal in 2021, after serving in the British military for over 30 years. He has been involved with most major military campaigns over his career, including deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Broader Middle East and has enjoyed an incredibly diverse career spanning satellite operations, special projects, supporting the Hercules C130 and Chinook CH47 Forces, the Directorate of Special Forces and capability procurement in the Ministry of Defence.
He has also had the rare privilege of commanding military forces at every rank up to and including 2 Star. In recent years he was the Commanding Officer of 90 Signals Unit, the RAF’s de-facto Chief Information Officer/Force Commander and Head of UK Defence’s global IT, network and defensive cyber operations.
In his last role he was Director Operations for the Defence Digital Operations HQ, where he was responsible for the operational planning, execution and multi-domain integration of MOD’s £3Bn pa core networks, defensive cyber, electro-magnetic spectrum and satellite operations globally. He also managed Defence’s cryptographic services and other more discrete capabilities. He is also a graduate of Defence’s Advanced and Higher Command and Staff Courses and was appointed CBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Outside of work he was a prominent Rugby Union player, having represented England at various junior levels, a professional player for Bristol in the 1990s and represented the RAF and Combined Services on many occasions. He has retired from playing rugby on multiple occasions, loves to experience life at the more adventurous end of the spectrum and has an unrivalled appreciation of Guinness!