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.
Matthew Savill is the Director of Military Sciences at RUSI, focussing on developments and trends in modern conflict, and the use of force in the 21st Century.
Before joining RUSI he spent over 20 years as a civil servant working on defence and security, predominantly in the Ministry of Defence. He joined the MOD in 2003, starting his career in Defence Intelligence as an Iraq analyst before moving to intelligence coordination and support to operations, and later roles in private office, approvals and scrutiny of major procurement projects, before a return to analysis and a secondment to the Cabinet Office.
He has also specialised in strategy and policy, with roles in: Defence Strategy and Priorities, working on the Integrated Review; the MOD’s Operations Directorate, where he was responsible for operational policy for the Middle East and overseas counter-terrorism; the Cabinet Office National Security Secretariat, to cover intelligence oversight and then Middle East policy; the MOD team responsible for the deployment of the UK Carrier Strike Group in 2021; and operations and crisis team responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His final role in the MOD was responsibility for Special Operations policy, covering oversight of UK Special Forces and intelligence operations.
He attended the Advanced Command and Staff Course at the Defence Academy Shrivenham in 2010-11, and the Higher Command and Staff Course in 2020, and has a Masters in Defence Studies from King’s College London. He has had articles published in Defence Studies and on The Wavell Room website.
He has deployed on operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and across the Middle East for the military campaign against Daesh.
Matthew was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2008.
Nik Smith is the Lockheed Martin Space UK Regional Director for UK and Europe, overseeing the company’s activity in region and leading on strategy and business growth.
Nik joined Lockheed Martin Space in 2015, taking a position in the Military Space division. Prior to that he had served for 16 years in the Royal Air Force fulfilling a range of roles in space operations, information technology, information policy, acquisition, cyber and C4ISR capability. His last post before joining Lockheed Martin was as a member of the British Defence Staff in the British Embassy in Washington DC, supporting the bilateral US-UK military relationship related to C4ISR, Cyber and Space.
Julie has over 30 years of broad international Space domain experience, holding key staff roles within ESA, NASA, the private Space sector and provided consultancy services globally. Julie’s skills span command, control, and influence across various domains, particularly in space-related activities. As a Director of Spacecraft Operations, she has led 5 missions including a complex JV with Singapore and Taiwan. Real time operational threat from a hostile nation led to her direct involvement with security in Space and government policy.
As a consultant in the Far East, India, Middle East, and UK she has advised companies and Governments at the most senior levels regarding spacecraft technology and applications, dual use, security, and policy. She has recently advised on IOSM, Launch and Cislunar operational challenges including threat. Julie was educated at Kent University, SOAS, The European Space Operations Centre and the UK Institute of Directors. She holds a first degree in Physics and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
After being graduated engineer from the Ecole Polytechnique, he joined the French Air Force on August 31, 1988, and began his fighter pilot training. Awarded with his fighter pilot wings in 1990, he held various responsibilities in operational units on Mirage 2000C within the 1/12 "Cambrésis" fighter squadron, then as Flight Commander in the 2/12 “Picardie” fighter squadron.
From 1993 to 1995, he was engaged in several operations in the Balkans and the Middle East.
Qualified as a test pilot in 1996, he was assigned to the French Flight Test Center in Istres, where he became Chief Test Pilot in 1999. After graduating from the French Joint War College in 2001, he came back to his previous responsibilities at the Flight Test Center in Istres. In 2003, he was assigned as operational advisor at the United Arab Emirates Flight Test Center.
Back in France in 2006, he served two years in the Capability Office of the Air Force Staff in Paris, in charge of the “Deterrence & Combat” division. From 2008 to 2010, he took command of the Istres Air Base, covering a major milestone with the commissioning of the ASMP-A nuclear weapon system.
After attending the National War College in Washington, D.C. in 2010-2011, he joined the NATO International Military Staff in Brussels as Deputy Chief of the “Air and Ballistic Missile Defense” Branch. In 2013, he was appointed deputy director of the Euro-Atlantic branch at the French Delegation for Strategic Affairs, in charge of supporting the defense minister for bilateral and multilateral meetings.
From 2015 to 2017, he was assigned to the Air Defense and Air Operations Command at Lyon Mont-Verdun Air Base 942, as commander of the National Air Operation Center. Promoted to Brigadier General in 2017, he then took command of the Air Operation Brigade, still at BA942. His responsibilities included command of the Barkhane Operation Joint Force Air Component. Then, on summer 2018, he was appointed deputy Joint Force Commander of the Barkhane Operation, in N'Djamena, Chad.
In 2019, he took command of the French Air Warfare Center in Mont-de-Marsan. He supervised the entry into service of the French armed "Reaper" as well as of the F3R standard of the “Rafale”. In 2020, he was appointed chief of the "Future Capabilities" division of the Joint Staff, in charge of planning the procurement of future equipment on behalf of the Joint Chief of Staff.
He took command of the French Space Command on 1 July 2022.
Taskeen, a visionary in the sphere of space exploration, serves as an educator and speaker with over twenty years of experience in the UK Government. For the past six years, she has been a prominent figure in the space industry, delving into novel tax domains, including those related to space. Taskeen is known for her ability to connect various disciplines and sectors, offering innovative insights and challenging conventional thinking. Her work often includes drawing parallels between space and other nascent fields, such as quantum technology. Taskeen has delivered keynotes for the University of Oxford and the OECD. She has been called on as a thought leader for various sectors and a wide range of organisations including the All-Party Parliamentary Groups UK Parliament, European Union, Reuters, FT, the Economist, auDA, ESA, RAeS, Catapult and the UN.
With a wealth of experience in shaping and guiding future strategies across several organisations, including the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT), Taskeen stands out as a recipient of recognition from the US State Department. This award honours her efforts to encourage participation in the space sector, particularly among women and underrepresented groups. As a committed futurist, Taskeen is actively involved in promoting conservation and sustainable use of space, advocating for its accessibility for all, now and in the future.
At His Majesty's (HM) Revenue and Customs, she leads initiatives related to tax bases in emerging jurisdictions, including Space, the Arctic, Oceans, and the Metaverse.
Juliana is the Research Fellow on Space Security as part of the Military Sciences team at RUSI and is the host of the podcast War in Space. She was previously Project Officer and Research Analyst at RUSI International. Her research interests include global space governance, sustainability, counterspace capabilities and space warfare.
Juliana holds an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London and a BA in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading. Prior to joining RUSI, she was an intern for the Development, Concept and Doctrine Centre, the independent think tank of the Ministry of Defence. There she researched varied topic areas, including geo-strategic, security and stabilisation topics, as well as future and contemporary trends in warfare.
After an 18-year Royal Signals career providing military CIS and command support, Calum Clark has been providing expert Systems Engineering (SE) and enterprise/system architecture advice and support to defence programmes, specialising in CIS acquisition. This has included: design of the MOD’s new capability management processes, leading SE support to the UK’s effort to counter Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), integrating F35 CIS with UK systems, system design of MORPHEUS, the UK’s proposed new tactical CIS capability including SATCOM elements as well as providing system engineering advice to over 20 other defence acquisition projects with CIS components and dependencies.
He has also worked with the Home Office, initiating a national programme to improve data exploitation in Law Enforcement and National Security. Since 2020 Calum has been leading the development of the Statements of Requirement for the next generation of Skynet military communications under the Enduring Capability (EC) project.
Stewart is the head of cyber within Thales UK, where he provides technical and strategic leadership to embedding and assuring cybersecurity and resilience within Thales products, solutions and services.
With a rich view of cybersecurity and resilience best practice across numerous verticals and technologies, Stewart also directly supports MOD’s development of its Secure by Design approach and was a key contributor to the recently released Defence Standard for cybersecurity and resilience in products solutions and services; DefStan 05-139.
He was previously employed within the Cyber Competency Centre as the Cyber Design Authority, where his responsible was for the oversight and provision of guidance and specialist input to the embedding of Cyber Security and Resilience into Thales Products, Solutions and Services.
Prior to joining Thales, Stewart had a rich career in the Royal Air Force. His career as both an Aircraft and Communications and Cyber Engineer placed him in key technical, operational and strategic roles. Throughout his career he has applied, with great effect, his unusual combination of deep technical and strong strategic and business skills. Stewart has succeeded in numerous leadership roles focused upon Air-Cyber Capability Development and Delivery. During his time at Aircraft Test and Evaluation Boscombe Down, he oversaw the assurance of integrating safety critical, smart weapons and Combat Aircraft digital system upgrades.
Whilst supporting Joint Forces Command, he led the conceptual and practical development of Offensive and Defensive Cyber Operations within the UK, focusing upon the full breadth of Information Systems, Industrial Control Systems, Platforms and Weapons. Responsible for delivering the MOD and wider government Cyber Programme, Stewart received an award from the MOD Permanent Secretary for his contribution to pioneering cyber policy and would be regularly required to brief Defence board members.
During his final years in the MOD, he delivered the MOD Cyber Programme and was the 1-Star MOD lead for the development of the UK Cyber Force.
Andy is the Director of RethinkPNT, a UK based SME. A Chartered Engineer, RethinkPNT has delivered real success in advising businesses, innovating new products and services, development programme oversight and assurance. He has specific market and technical expertise in the space sector in the UK, position navigation and timing systems and satellite communications. Andy has over 15 years industrial experience, 8 years as a UK government technology investor, including being a European Space Agency Board member and National Delegate. 2 years as the Technical Director of the UK Space Agency, and technical lead for PNT across the UK Government for the Cabinet Office. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation (FRIN), a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (FIET) and a PhD researcher at Imperial College London in resilience and assurance.
Lewis leads Deloitte’s Air & Space account in the UK and has designed and led transformation efforts across defence and security organisations for 12 years. A management consultant by background, Lewis builds multi-disciplinary teams to solve clients’ most pressing problems and is experienced in leading organisations through significant change.
