Ian joined the Royal Navy in 1979 retiring last year after 43 years’ service, he is a graduate of the, now closed, Royal Navy’s Engineering College in Plymouth and is a Chartered Engineer. The early years of his career were spent in both engineering and warfare appointments in Frigates and Destroyers. He served aboard HMS GLASGOW during the Falklands conflict in 1982 and in the Gulf during the tanker wars of the late 80s, he also conducted several Anti-Submarine patrols in the North Atlantic during the height of the Cold War. More latterly he has served in the MOD, shore HQs, as an intelligence analyst and as a Sea Training instructor. He graduated from the NATO Defence College in 2009 and served in the NATO HQ in Naples, Italy and more recently in the NATO HQ in Brussels where he supported capability development and was the lead author of NATO’s Anti-Submarine Warfare vision. He went on to be part the team which formed and then supported the NATO Maritime Unmanned Systems Initiative.

Earlier this year he took up a civilian post supporting the Royal Navy’s ASW Spearhead project with a specific focus on NATO engagement and Operational Experimentation. As part of the leadership team of NATO’s ASW Barrier project, he planned and led the execution of the Underwater component of the REPMUS 23 unmanned exercise in Portugal in Sep 23 and is lead planner for the ASW component of REPMUS 24.