James Heappey MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Defence Procurement)

James served in the Army reaching the rank of Major, in a career spanning ten years. He served on operations in Kabul in 2005, Northern Ireland in 2006, Basra in 2007 and Sangin in Helmand Province in 2009.

Having been re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Wells on December 12th, Mr Heappey said he is ‘honoured’ to take up this prestigious role.

He said: “In a changing world, with so many threats to our national security, I am honoured to be joining the ministerial team at the Ministry of Defence.

“I know that so many in our local community support our Armed Forces and I look forward to now taking up this important role, ensuring our Armed Forces are properly equipped for the mission we ask them to do on our nation’s behalf.

“Constituents can be assured that my highest priority will always be the service of our local community and so whilst I am now a voice for Somerset in Government, I also remain focused on delivering the plan you elected me to implement last week.”

Andrew Forzani

UK Ministry of Defence Chief Commercial Officer

Andrew has worked in the commercial, procurement and supply chain profession for the whole of his career, working in health, infrastructure international aid, construction and local government before joining the Civil Service. During this time he has delivered complex commercial deals, across property, infrastructure, IT categories and a range of national outsourcing service programmes in health, education and government.
He has also led transformation and improvement programmes across commercial functions including in local government where he established one of the largest procurement shared services in the UK and at the DWP, where he led a major transformation which saw them implement a new operating model and turnaround significant contracts across their IT and Estates spend. Andrew has also been a Crown Representative responsible for HM Government relationships with suppliers in the IT and Property sectors.
Andrew is currently the Chief Commercial Officer at the UK Ministry of Defence and is the senior responsible advisor across Defence for commercial and industrial issues. The role also covers the overall functional leadership of over 2,000 procurement and commercial professionals in Defence. The commercial function covers an annual spend in excess of £20bn across a diverse and complex set of programmes and categories covering major platform acquisition, infrastructure, estates and FM and IT & digital.
Andrew is also leading an Acquisition Review across Defence as part of the Departments transformation programme which is looking to fundamentally improve the way in which we acquire military capability in the future.
In addition, Andrew is one of the senior leaders of the Government Commercial Organisation and has been instrumental in helping to set the overall strategy and direction across the Civil Service. Andrew has led and championed a number of the people and capability initiatives across this new organisation to ensure they are fit for purpose and embedded effectively across government.

Air Commodore Rich Withnall

UK Defence Medical Services Medical Director

Air Commodore Rich Withnall joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a Medical Cadet in 1990 and qualified from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London in 1992. He undertook General Practice Vocational Training at Princess Mary’s RAF Hospital, Halton and Peterborough Hospitals National Health Service Trust. His UK postings have included Senior Medical Officer appointments on fast jet, multi-engine and rotary flying stations, and the RAF’s recruit Phase 1 training unit. He has undertaken Command & Staff appointments at HQ Personnel and Training Command, HQ AIR Command, HQ Surgeon General and the Ministry of Defence. His overseas experience includes Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Denmark, the Falkland Islands, Ghana, Iraq, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Norway, Romania and the United Arab Emirates.

He was appointed as Advisor in General Practice (RAF) in 2005, then undertook the Advanced Command & Staff Course in 2007-8, winning both the Brooke-Popham Prize for the Best Defence Research Paper and the Sir Michael Howard Prize for the Best MA student. After a tour as SO1 Med Pol in the Ministry of Defence, Rich returned to HQ AIR Command as Deputy Director Health Services (RAF) in 2010. He was selected as the first RAF Defence Professor of General Practice & Primary Care in 2013. In 2017, he became the first primary care clinician to be appointed as the Defence Medical Services’ Medical Director.

Rich has remained clinically current throughout, revalidating with a licence to practise in 2013. He is on the National Performers List. An accredited GP Trainer and Appraiser Trainer since 2002, and an RCGP Examiner since 2005, Rich became a Fellow of the RCGP in 2006. He is a member of RCGP Council, the RCGP’s International Medical Director, and Deputy Clinical Lead for the MRCGP Clinical Skills Assessment. He is the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s GP Advisor, a GP Specialty Advisor to the UK Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and Convener of the World Organisation of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Association of General Practitioners/Family Physicians (WONCA) Special Interest Group on Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine. Rich is a Chartered Manager and has undertaken the RAF’s Strategic Leadership and Development Programme.

He lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two children. He remains a keen motorcyclist and fly-fisherman but, despite being very proud to have captained the RAF Medical Services rugby team, Rich has now hung-up his rugby boots in favour of season tickets at Gloucester Rugby (where watching is sometimes more painful than playing!)

Ruth Todd

Submarine Delivery Agency Commercial Director

Ruth Todd has 30 years’ experience in supply chain management, logistics and consultancy in a variety of private sector businesses.
Most recently she worked for Babcock International where she managed the Land Equipment Support Supply Chain. Prior to that she helped Jaguar Land Rover develop its inbound logistics strategy and led the programme to deliver that change.
Ruth spent 14 years in consultancy and had the opportunity to support aerospace, defence, automotive and industrial sectors, both in front line manufacturing and support services, always in complex environments. Much of her career has been in transformational management; leading teams through change to deliver practical operational improvements.
Her early career was in the automotive sector working in production, supply chain, procurement and strategy roles. She has a degree in Manufacturing Engineering and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Logistics and Transportation.

Gary Aitkenhead

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Chief Executive

Gary has a broad background in Technology Research & Development and Commercial leadership with a track record of revenue growth and business transformation. After achieving a first class honours degree from the University of Strathclyde in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Gary spent much of his career in the development and supply of mission-critical wireless communications solutions to public safety, industrial and transportation sectors. Gary held senior positions (Vice President) at Motorola Solutions and latterly Sepura plc for more than 20 years, covering sales, services, operations and product management. Gary’s experience includes both global and regional (Europe, Middle East and Africa) roles and profit/loss responsibility of more than $1B. He was appointed Chief Executive of Dstl in January 2018 and leads this government organisation of over 4000 scientists and engineers providing specialist, and in many cases world-leading expertise, across a wide-range of disciplines.
Married, with three daughters, Gary lives in Hampshire. His interests include cooking, the outdoors and mountain biking.

Colonel Tim Collins OBE

Leadership and Motivational Speaker

Colonel Tim Collins OBE delivered the infamous speech to British troops of the 1st Royal Irish Battle Group on the eve of battle in March 2003. With a copy of the speech now hanging in the Oval Office of the White House, the notoriety and strength of this speech is shown by its prominence around the world. Collins’ words made him an overnight hero with world leaders and infantrymen globally. A terrific motivational speaker, Tim can utilise his vast array of anecdotal tales to intrigue and engage with guests.

Tim has served in the Gulf War, Colombia, Zaire, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. A naturally inspiring and motivational speaker, Tim combines his broad knowledge of both political and military history with tales of his active service. A pre-eminent authority on teamwork, leadership and motivation, Collins can provide clear parallels as a motivational speaker between everyday leadership in business and personal life with military problem solving tasks.

A fantastic event and conference host, Tim’s interesting approach to the delivery of his thoughts provide a great perspective to everyday problems, striking a chord with every audience member as a leadership speaker. Tim’s leadership advice is summarised in a handful of rules; Pick the right team, know what your plan and objectives are, make sure everyone has a role and it is communicated to them and understand responsibilities as a leader while trusting your team.

Les Mosco

CEO of Commercial Strategies Limited and former MOD Commercial Director

Les Mosco has led the commercial function at MOD and the Scottish Office, Network Rail, Amerada Hess Oil & Gas, NatWest Bank and held other senior positions in the public and private sector. Now an independent, he is a Non-Executive Director at Transport for Greater Manchester, a Trustee/Director at 2 charities, and an Advisor/Consultant to a variety of clients including the Bank of England, the National Audit Office, PA Consulting and BiP.