Kata Escott CB
UK Managing Director and Head of Country. Airbus Defence and Space Ltd.
Speaker profile
Kata joined Airbus in 2023.
Kata is a former civil servant and has supported governments across a range of national security priorities over the course of her career.
She joined the Ministry of Defence from university, where she has held roles across the business including in policy, operations and planning. As the head of defence strategy in 2021, she led a major reset of our Armed Forces including a decisive shift towards a more modern, tech-enabled military that secured an additional £16.5bn for the defence budget.
Kata has also held pivotal roles in the Cabinet Office. She led the government’s response to the 20xx Snowden intelligence crisis, supported the the Prime Minister’s National Security Council with strategic advice through the IR, AUKUS and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and she was the Chief of Staff to the Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service (Lords Heywood and Sedwill) right at the heart of government through a particularly turbulent time for British politics.
In the most recent chapter of her government career she enjoyed working with Sir Patrick Vallance building the Government’s Science Superpower agenda and was at the heart of establishing the new Department for Science, Innovation and Tech.
She lives in South East London with her husband, Harry, a composer for film and TV, and her children aged 14-7.