Speakers

Speaker profile

Paul joined the Royal Air Force in 1991 and has been a fighter pilot for most of his career. A weapons instructor on the Harrier and one of the first operational pilots on the Eurofighter Typhoon, he has flown on numerous operations and exercises with the RAF and undertook an exchange tour on the F-16 Fighting Falcon with the United States Air Force. He was also privileged to be a Spitfire and Hurricane pilot on the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

Other roles have included Typhoon requirements management at Defence Equipment and Support in Bristol, capability management at the Ministry of Defence and operational programme management within the F-35 Lightning programme.

Between 2015 and 2017, Paul was Station Commander of RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland before moving to the Ministry of Defence as head of Carrier Enabled Power Projection, integrating F-35B fighters and Crowsnest helicopters with Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. In 2020 he returned from Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, where he was responsible for the planning and employment of coalition air and space power across the Middle East as the Director of the USAF Combined Air and Space Operations Centre.

Paul is the inaugural Commander of UK Space Command which stood up on 1 Apr 2021 at RAF High Wycombe. A Joint organisation, it draws from all three services as well as the civil service, industry, and academia. The Command is responsible for Defence Space Operations, Capability and Training.

Paul has a Masters in Defence Studies from Kings College London and is Chairman of the Royal Air Force Rugby Union. He is married with two adult offspring and a Norfolk Terrier still going strong at 84 dog years.