Joanne Thompson is one of 3 Crown Representatives working within MOD and with assigned strategic suppliers to improve delivery outcomes, develop commercial understanding, enhance cross government relationships and encourage effective innovation.

Joanne was previously a senior executive of a number of global technology businesses, delivering significant business change and major IT and manufacturing programmes worldwide. Her experience includes the establishment and management of global supply chains in support of major contracts, and extensive experience of contract negotiation and change.

As a non-executive, she currently sits on the board of the Churchill Fellowship and is Chair of Magic Breakfast UK. Joanne is an alumnus of Cranfield Business School (MBA) and holds a BA(Hons) in Politics and International Relations from the University of Lancaster.

Andrea joined Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Engineering as a commercial apprentice at 16 and worked her way up through the business to become Operations Manager over three sites across the country. In 2004 after a restructuring by the owners, Andrea and her business partner purchased the remaining manufacturing site in Worsley, Manchester and so began AT Engine Controls Limited.  Andrea owned the business with her husband until a management buyout in January 2021 – she remains with the business as Chair and shareholder.

 Andrea was awarded an OBE in the Queens New Year’s honours list in 2014 for her services to Manufacturing.

Andrea is keen to champion women in manufacturing as well as the advancement of manufacturing apprenticeships throughout the industry and sits on the Boards of several Manufacturing trade organisations, member of the Made Smarter Commission, Chair of the Board of Trustees of North West Training Centre, Chair of the Make UK Defence Policy Group and Co-Chair of the Defence Suppliers Forum SME Working Group.

Jonathon has worked in a variety of different jobs and functions during a MOD career, which has now spanned over 30 years.  This has included working in all 3 Front Line Commands, MOD Head Office, a Trading Fund and within the support chains for the Army and the Royal Navy.  Prior to joining Navy Command, Jonathon worked as Head of Commercial for Air Command. 

Jonathon is currently leading a team of approximately 50 staff providing commercial strategies for the Royal Navy, while delivering a significant change programme within his team and overseeing the 2 procurements each with an estimated value of over £1BN.  

Prior to commercial, Jonathon’s background was in project and change management, but he also has a background in bid management, which he forged when in a Trading fund – so he is something of a poacher turned gamekeeper.  Upon moving to commercial he rapidly developed a reputation for resolving problems, including closing down long-standing contracts and an award-winning re-negotiation on a PFI contract.  

Jonathon is an experienced Gateway reviewer, having completed about a dozen reviews for a variety of different departments. 

He is married with 2 children a member of CIPS and a chartered member of CIPD

Property professional with 30 years’ experience of delivering estates services and operations, complex capital projects, acquisitions and disposals.

Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Master’s Degree Business and Public Sector Strategy. Major Project Leadership Academy Said Business School Oxford University 

Started career delivering estates services including rural, urban and overseas estate management in Catterick, London and Gibraltar. Subsequently undertaken a range of infrastructure roles such as Head of Estates Information Technology, writing and implementing the MOD’s first Estate Strategy and leading on Estate Policy and Strategy.  Led on introducing Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate.   2010 took up the post of Head of Operations North in Defence Estates responsible for the delivery of land management, maintenance and construction projects across MOD estate.  Then developed DIO’s Enhanced Operating Model, moving on to manage the resulting transformation programme. Appointed as turnaround Programme Director for the Army Basing Programme. 

Current Role 

• UK Built Estate Management (591 FTE posts). c.33,633 assets and associated contracts. Annually £197M core contract HFM services c. £450M Hard FM injected works services c.£204M Soft FM services across 303 sites UK-wide. Organised into 4 regional teams in SNI, Central, SE and SW.
• UK Defence Training Estate Management (303 FTE posts). c.9000 assets across 173 sites over 150,000 Ha (plus 125,000 leased). Annual core contract costs of c.£81M for Hard and Soft FM delivery including feeding, accommodation, range bookings, targetry support, management of the rural training estate and tenanted estates and c.£65M Hard FM injected works services; and providing a safe place to train.
• Overseas Defence Training Estate Management (258.5 FTE posts). 2886 assets across 36 sites over 583,990 Ha; associated contracts, delivering c.£34M core contract Hard FM and c.£4M Soft FM services and c.£19M Hard FM injected works services annually; and providing a safe place to train.
• Overseas Built Estate (PJOBs and Far East) Management (125 FTE posts). Across 8 countries comprising c.8103 assets and associated contracts, delivering c.£59M core contract Hard FM services, c.£73M Hard FM injected works services, and c.£26M Soft FM services annually.
• USVF Estate Management (145 FTE posts). 4503 assets and associated contracts. Delivering £52M core contract Hard FM services, £51.9M Hard FM injected works services annually.
• Utility Management UK and Overseas (42 FTE posts). Centralised administration of UK and Overseas utility contracts, bill payments, recoveries and provision of consumption data and forecasting.  Management of 27 contracts, £265M budget and 132,000 bills processed annually.

Andrew Kinniburgh is Director-General of Make UK Defence, the Defence Trade Association belonging to Make UK – the Manufacturers’ Organisation. He joined Make UK in 2019 from the Cabinet Office where he was Wider Government Engagement Lead for the Government Commercial Organisation, following a 25 year career in the defence and security industry.

He spent nearly 10 years with Serco Defence, followed by senior appointments with Smiths Detection and two Ministry of Defence trading funds and a 7 year spell as an independent consultant. He holds a BA in Business from Heriot-Watt University and an MSc in International Defence Marketing from Cranfield University / UK Defence Academy.

Andrew has been involved with Defence Ministries and businesses in the Defence and Security sectors across most European countries and in North America, as well as the UK. Make UK Defence represents over 300 UK Defence Suppliers ranging from SMEs and mid tiers, to major Primes and is the lead Trade Association for the MOD’s Defence Suppliers Forum SME Working Group.

Andrew has been working as Tetra Tech ’s Head of C&S for over seven years and is highly knowledgeable in creating complex technical buildings, that meet security management required in defence.

Andrew leads the BIM strategy and works with the team who are developing and shaping our digital workflows to improve the way we digitally deliver our projects.

Fergus Anderson is a Chief Analyst in Dstl and is currently Strategic Partnerships Leader and Deputy Division Head in Exploration Division.  He has worked in Defence, Security, and Law Enforcement for over 20 years and has expertise in futures, influence, intelligence analysis, counter terrorism, UK operations and civil contingencies. His academic background was in Theology and he has since gone on to study Counter Terrorism and Intelligence and Security.

He has served in a number of UK Government Departments providing liaison, analysis and advice on a range of Defence and Security issues. He has set up an innovation hub in the FCDO and was Head of Strategy in the Home Office.  He has been embedded in cross Government teams and most recently in the MOD Strategic Headquarters where has led scientific support to operations and advised on cross Government capabilities. His interests include opportunities and threats from emerging technology.

Steve graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a 1^st Class degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering in 1986 and joined GEC Marconi in Basildon, Essex. During his time with GEC, he progressed through a number of engineering roles before focusing on Project Management, completing a Masters degree in Engineering Project Management at Lancaster University.

In 2000, Steve joined Racal in Wells, Somerset, to lead a transformation of their project delivery, heading up all project activity on site. Following the acquisition of Racal by Thales he was appointed to his first executive position in 2002 as MD of the Air Operations business and in 2006 he was appointed UK MD for the Air Systems Division.

After a short period helping to start-up a Private Hospital, Steve joined Cohort plc to led SEA (one of its subsidiary companies). Over the next 10 years he led the growth of the business, acquiring and integrating a specialist maritime busines as well as disposing of non-core elements. During his time with SEA it grew both in volume and profit, becoming an international product business with customers across the world.

Currently the Customer Account Director Europe for GE Aviation. Key accounts include MoD, Boeing Defence UK , Lockheed Martin UK and Government departments. Working closely with the UK Department for International Trade (DIT) to develop UK companies as suppliers to GE Aviation in the USA.  Jon spent numerous years working in the Asian market for GE Aviation & Smiths Aerospace focusing on business campaigns in China, India, Korea & Japan. GE acquired Smith’s Aerospace in 2007 where Jon was the Head of Business Development for the Cheltenham site, leading international military campaigns & initiatives.

 Jon is a Mechanical Engineer and, in addition to Smiths & GE, has held various engineering, sales & marketing roles within the Dowty Group and Ultra Electronics before joining Smiths in 1993. Was the chairman of the ADS Aerospace Export Focus Group (AEFG), currently member of the ADS External Affairs Board (EAB) and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Nicole Ballantyne is a chartered Mechanical Engineer with 3 decades of industry experience in the manufacturing sector, and in innovation support. As Knowledge Transfer Manager in the Manufacturing Team at KTN, Nicole makes targeted links to the right knowledge, partners, facilities and funding with a view to driving productivity, efficiency and economic growth. Nicole’s role in the Manufacturing Made Smarter Industrial Challenge team at InnovateUK is to lead the development of a growing vibrant cohesive community of industrial digital technology providers, developers and users across sectors, supporting manufacturers to embrace digital technology innovation, and technology developers to innovate the best solutions. Nicole started her career as an engineering sponsored student with Metalbox – a 15yr career that led to exciting manufacturing leadership roles throughout Europe. Subsequent varied management roles in the support sector have seen Nicole develop and collaborate in technology & innovation strategies in a whole variety of companies in a plethora of sectors. She holds a M.Sc. from Cranfield, and a B.Eng.(hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College.

Since 2017 John has led the MOD’s “Doing Business with Defence” supplier outreach team and is the department’s lead for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise policy. He has worked for the Ministry of Defence since 1989, primarily in policy and secretariat roles, working on a number of high-profile policy reviews including terms and conditions for Ghurkhas, service children’s education and official entertainment. He has been involved in a variety Strategic Supplier Management roles since 2012, managing relationships with some of the largest defence contractors. John is currently responsible for managing the Defence Suppliers’ Forum, which is the UK MOD’s strategic engagement with the defence industry.

Lee started his career working for IBM in a variety of sales and delivery roles. He moved to the public sector in 2013, and worked to establish a Supplier Relationship Management team across the Digital & Technology space at the Ministry of Justice. Lee has recently moved to the Defence Infrastructure Organisation at the MoD, where he is working on the new SRM strategy. He would like the DIO to be a transparent organisation which is easy for suppliers to do business with, and create win/win strategies for the future.

• Senior “hands on” positions leading Strategic Sourcing, Commercial and Vendor Management within Defence, Public Sector, Transport, Utilities (Energy & Water) and Technology sectors in UK, EMEA and US.
  • Managing expenditure of £1B and complex programmes that drive value and deliver savings of £200M+.
  • Track record in stakeholder management and communications across complex organisations.
  • Leading and motivating high performing teams from 10 to 100 staff across major indirect spends.
  • Led sourcing & change programmes transforming the delivery & operating models for Finance & HR Shared Services, Information Technology, Customer Services Print & Document Management, Facilities Management, Marketing Services, Fleet, Professional Services including consultancy, contingent labour & Travel Management.
  • Delivered transformational approach for managing technologies including Data Centre Services, Distributed Computing, Data Networks, Voice & Telecoms, Help Desk Services, Standard & Specialist Applications.
  • Led Business Process Outsourcing of Customer Services, Residential Care, Meter Reading, Fleet, Inventory & Logistics and Travel Management across a broad range of organisations.
  • Leading Facilities Management, Real Estate, Housing and construction outsourcing and insourcing programmes
  • Led transformation programmes including organisation design, development of standardised policies & procedures, strengthened stakeholder engagement that has delivered dramatic savings & service improvements.
  • Development and implementation of new Procurement Strategies, improved governance including Procurement Codes, Procurement Assurance and improved governance and policies.
  • Leading development of Sustainable Procurement Strategy; providing supply base compliance with regularity and customer requirements (modern slavery, anti-corruption and risk management), improving climate resilience and carbon emissions in our supply base (supplier carbon action plans, reducing waste and environmental impacts), building sustainable and diverse supply bases that foster innovation (supplier diversity SMEs and partnerships) and leveraging social value as a competitive advantage (social, economic and environmental commitments).
  • Implementation of key technology strategies; ERP, Spend Management, eSourcing and eContracts Management.