Defence Leaders Wins Gold

Defence Leaders always aims to achieve the gold standard in everything it does — so we’re delighted that the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) agrees we’re hitting that mark too.

Our firm, which is also behind the Navy Leaders brand, has recently received the Gold Award for the Armed Forces Covenant: the highest level of recognition possible under the MoD’s Employer Recognition Scheme. 

The Gold Award proves that our firm — which runs six industry-leading defence-sector events in the land and naval domains as well as providing daily industry news and extended thought-leadership articles — is also going out of its way to provide exceptional support to the wider Armed Forces community.

To win the Gold Award, Defence Leaders had to show it has achieved and is continuing to meet a series of strict criteria demonstrating an ongoing commitment to helping serving and ex-military personnel thrive inside and outside the Armed Forces.

These rules included offering tailored support to serving personnel, reservists, veterans, and military families; allowing extra leave for reservists during training and deployment; proving its commitment to employing veterans and military spouses/partners; and demonstrating an active policy in hiring and employment practices towards members of the Armed Forces community.

Defence Leaders also had to illustrate its strong working relationship with defence organisations such as local reserve units, cadet detachments, and Armed Forces charities.

And it needed to show how it was actively promoting the benefits of supporting the Armed Forces community to other organisations and encouraging them to sign the Covenant as well.

Only companies which already hold the Silver Award (such as ours) are eligible to be considered for the upgraded Gold status.

Going forward, winning the Gold Award opens the door for Defence Leaders to enjoy extra opportunities to collaborate with other like-minded organizations and gain visibility within the Armed Forces and the defence community as a whole.

The MoD describes the Gold award as “a mark of distinction for employers who go above and beyond to uphold the values of the Armed Forces Covenant.”

Defence Leaders Defence Director Major Harry MacLeod, himself a Company Commander in the Steelbacks, 3rd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, commented: “A total of 24 companies in Essex expressed an interest; of those, only three were awarded Gold status. 

“We’d like to say congratulations to Spicer Haart and Marlborough Highways, who enjoyed success alongside us.

“Winning this award is a real feather in our cap and part of an ongoing journey for Defence Leaders in supporting those who serve and have served — and their support networks too.”

And Nathan Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Defence Leaders, said: “As a firm we’re obviously closely tied to the defence community and we absolutely believe it’s of paramount importance to support our Armed Forces. Currently we can see that our Army is at its smallest size since Napoleonic times and that doesn’t necessarily mean we need a bigger army.

“What it does mean, however, is that we need the ability to rapidly generate mass when called upon and the key to this are our reserve forces. We need reserve forces that are well trained, well equipped and supported by their employers to be a force multiplier at a moment’s notice. This is what Defence Leaders strives to achieve.”

Defence Leaders’ portfolio of six industry-leading events covering the land and sea domains includes the Combined Naval Event (CNE), the largest annual naval event of its kind in Europe. They bring serving military personnel of all ranks, procurement agency decision-makers, academics and industry experts from NATO members and allied friendly nations together to network and find solutions to shared challenges.

Defence Leaders also provides daily industry news and extended thought-leadership articles via its two websites, defenceleaders.com and navyleaders.com.

• If you are interested in either speaking at or attending any of our events please call Defence Director Major Harry Macleod on +44 1245 407931 or email harry@defenceleaders.com