Speakers

Speaker profile

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!