Brigadier (Retd) Ian Cameron-Mowat

Ian Cameron-Mowat joined the Royal Corps of Signals in 1983 with an honours degree in Russian from Glasgow University. He had a busy Cold War culminating in his two-year tour on detached duty as a specialist intelligence officer in the final years of the Berlin Wall. Otherwise he alternated between more mainstream Royal Signals appointments at troop, squadron and Regimental level, equipment capability, and posts in intelligence and security in the UK and with the United Nations.

His final seven years in uniform were spent, first as a colonel and finally as a brigadier, heading Special Projects and Force Protection teams in the MOD’s procurement organisation, Defence Equipment and Support. Among other areas, he was responsible for the UK’s remote-controlled vehicle programmes, counter-IED systems, bomb disposal, force protection surveillance and novel protection systems for armoured vehicles.

On leaving the Army in early 2010 he founded a consultancy helping companies to identify and win opportunities in equipment programmes in the UK and allied countries. His work has included advice to UK MOD and support to British and international clients in robotics, UAS and counter-UAS, electronic countermeasures, surveillance, vehicle integration, communications, survivability and the manufacturing supply chain, along with extensive conference chairing.

Outside work, his interests are fairly standard – travel, foreign languages, military history, archaeology, dogs, cooking, gadgets - all that sort of thing.

Brigadier Mike Cornwell

Captain Aleksanteri Siren

 Captain Aleksanteri Sirén, Teacher of Artillery Tactics, Department of Warfare, National Defence University, Finnish Defence Forces. Previous positions include four years in Reserve Officer School and two years in Artillery School as a course manager. Graduated from National Defence University as Master of Military Science in 2020. Currently a Doctoral Candidate of Military Science and writing a dissertation on autonomous weapon systems and human-machine teaming in the kill chain of artillery system. Previously studied operational and tactical usage of autonomous weapon systems in 2018¬-2020.

Captain Christian Andersson

 Captain Christian Andersson works in the Finnish National Defence University as a research officer and a scientist. He received his M.Sc.Tech in Automation & hydraulics from Tampere University of Technology in 2018. He later graduated with a master´s degree in military sciences in 2022. He is preparing two dissertations, first on Artificial Intelligence in Military Unmanned Ground Vehicles and the second one on development and uses of Military Unmanned Ground Vehicles. His scientific researchers focuses on developing Evolutionary algorithms for UGV’s and further developing an Autonomous Multi-Purpose Ground Vehicle. Despite his young career he is already participating in several research projects in Finland.

Colonel Charles Seaberry

COL Seaberry serves as the Director of Army Futures Command International-Atlantic overseeing a globally-reaching organization spanning Europe, Africa, and the Middle East committed to advancing military capabilities and collaborative efforts in research and development. AFC International-Atlantic identifies foreign technology for seamless integration into Army Research and Development centers, ensuring the Army maintains its innovation edge. By aligning Army initiatives with key agencies such as OSD, USAF, and USN, COL Seaberry maximizes investments to enhance future combat capabilities. AFC International-Atlantic actively supports EUCOM, AFRICOM, and USAREUR-AF in shaping strategic S&T engagement plans to fortify the Army's global presence. Serving as the Army's S&T lead to NATO, COL Seaberry champions interoperability and modernization priorities and fostering collaborative R&D partnerships with foreign stakeholders. AFC International-Atlantic remains at the forefront of innovation and international collaboration, contributing significantly to national security.

Colonel David Robertson

 Colonel David Robertson is the Director of the Army’s Robotic & Autonomous Systems Implementation & Coordination Office (RICO) within Future Land Warfare Branch of the Australian Army HQ. RICO leads concept development around emerging and disruptive technology, including autonomy and AI, Quantum Technologies and alternative power and energy. He has overseen Army’s exploration of autonomous systems since January 2024.
He is an Armoured Corps officer by background and has served for 26 years the Australian Army. He has a background in System Design and Data Science and has fulfilled a number of Capability Development and educational roles. He has deployed a number of times at the tactical and operational levels.

Colonel Jan Mazal

 COL. Doc. Ing. Jan Mazal, Ph.D., a graduate of the Military College of Ground Forces in Vyskov. Since 2005 he is a doctor in the field of the theory of Defence Management and since 2013 he is an associate professor in the area of Military Management. He is former Doctrine Education and Training Branch Chief at the NATO Modelling & Simulation Centre of Excellence in ROME, currently, he works as a chief of the Military Robotics Department at the University of Defence in Brno. His field of expertise is Military Robotics, C4ISR Systems, and Modelling and Simulation in Military Domain.

Colonel Jeff Jurand

 COL Jeffery W. Jurand graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1998 and commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Armor. He initially served as both a Tank and Scout Platoon Leader in 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, TX. In November 2001 he deployed as an Assistant Operations Officer with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division to Kuwait as Operation Enduring Freedom began.

Following the Armor Captains Career Course, he then served as a Rear Detachment Commander and Assistant Operations Officer for 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, KS. In June 2005, he assumed command of C/1-34 AR. In May 2006, C/1-34 AR tripled in size, converted to a motorized company and COL Jurand commanded the company during its subsequent deployment in support of OIF 06-07. Upon re-deployment, he transitioned into the Army Acquisition Corps.

In 2008, COL Jurand was assigned to the Army Research Laboratory at Adelphi, MD and served as a counter-IED Project Team Lead. There he led project teams conducting limited development and experimentation with both developmental and off-the-shelf technology and led initial fielding efforts in Afghanistan in support of Joint IED Defeat Organization’s (JIEDDO) efforts. In 2010 he was reassigned to Warren, MI where he served as an Assistant Product Manager for Mobility and Power Generation Systems in the Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Program. In 2013 he was nominated and selected for an assignment with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg, NC. There he served as both a Product Director for Sensitive Activities and Chief of Requirements. COL Jurand assumed responsibilities as Product Manager, Heavy Tactical Vehicles in June 2016. In June 2020, COL Jurand was reassigned to the Pentagon and served as the Executive Officer to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASAALT). In November 2020, COL Jurand assumed duties as Project Manager, Maneuver Combat Systems back in Warren, MI.

COL Jurand has a B.S. in Engineering Science from Vanderbilt University and an M.Eng in Project Management from University of Maryland, College Park. He attended the U.S. Army War College Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, PA in 2019-2020 where he studied Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Colonel Tim Wright

 COL Tim Wright is responsible for Research and
Experimentation in the Futures Directorate of the UK
Army Headquarters with specific focus on robotics,
autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence. Most
recently, he served as Director for Russia on the
National Security Council staff in the Executive Office
of the President. He holds a PhD from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Colonel Toby Till

 Colonel Toby Till has commanded the UK Experimentation and Trials Group since June 2022. His previous experience includes Infantry Battalion command (Coldstream Guards) with Light Infantry, Armoured Infantry, Reconnaissance, Close Observation and Airborne Pathfinder experience over 31 years. On the staff he has completed multiple capability roles covering concepts, capability delivery as well as a planner in Divisional and Operational HQ. He has served 3 tours in Northern Ireland, 3 in Afghanistan, 1 in Iraq, as well in Kosovo with the UNHCR. He has trained globally including in Southeast Asia, Central and North America, Africa and across Europe.

Dr Elias Stipidis

Elias Stipidis (PhD, FIET) has 25+ years’ experience in delivering research and technology projects within the Lands Systems domain. He was in academia for 20 years; started in 1999 at the University of Sussex (where previously completed his PhD), and then 2010 he moved to the University of Brighton as a Professor of Vetronics, from where he left to work in industry in 2019.
From 1998 – 2019, he has worked with the UK MOD to deliver future capabilities research programmes contributing to the creation and maturity of Defence Standards GVA Def Stan 23-009 and NATO GVA STANAG 4754, and for his contributions he was presented in 2012 with the UK Minister (DEST – Defence Equipment Support and Technology) Acquisition Award. As Director of the Vetronics Research Centre, he was awarded Centre of Excellence status, directly funded by the UK MOD, 2004-2019.
Through his role within the EDA CapTech Land, he contributed significantly to the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) and Capability Development Plan (CDP) for the Land Domain and has worked on a number of EU programmes including Active Protection Systems, Modular UGV Platforms standardisation and currently is the Technical Coordinator for COMMANDS.
Since 2022, he is the CEO of Vetronics Research Centre EU Ltd, and his expertise is in Electronics Architectures Systems Integration, Safety and Security, Embedded Systems Networking, and Interoperability
 

Dr Kim Mathiassen

 Kim Mathiassen received a Masters degree in engineering cybernetics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2010 and a PhD in medical robotics from the University of Oslo in 2017. In 2015 he started working at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment with Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) and autonomous systems. In addition, he is an associate professor at the University of Oslo teaching advanced robotics. He is also the chair of the NATO STO group IST-179 Interoperability for Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles. His is currently working as a research manger on combat vehicles and dismounted soldier at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment.

Dr Sidharth Kauhsal

 Sidharth Kaushal's research at RUSI covers the impact of technology on maritime doctrine in the 21st century and the role of sea power in a state's grand strategy.
Sidharth holds a doctorate in International Relations from the London School of Economics, where his research examined the ways in which strategic culture shapes the contours of a nation's grand strategy.

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Dawe

 Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Dawe joined the Army in 2001, commissioning into the Scots Guards. Initially posted to London on ceremonial duties, he then served as a Platoon Commander in the Guards Training Division, Catterick. Further postings included Poland, Canada and Germany where he was an Armoured Infantry Platoon and Company Commander. He worked in Joint Capabilities in the MoD during SDSR10 and is experienced in several other key Staff appointment roles, both in the MoD and in the Field Army. He has completed multiple tours of duty in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and overseas short-term training tasks (STTT).

Lieutenant Colonel James de St John-Pryce

 With a passion for the role and challenges of reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel James de St John-Pryce commissioned into the Household Cavalry. He completed tours of Bosnia and two of Iraq as a junior officer.
At PJHQ, he was the J3 Joint Effects desk officer and then MA to the Assistant Chief of Staff J3 (Operations). He commanded C Squadron HCR in preparation for a tour of Afghanistan on Scimitar 2. He has been the Syria desk officer in Military Strategic Effects, Plans Officer for the European Training Mission in Mogadishu and Requirements Manager on the AJAX programme. More recently he was Second in Command of the Household Cavalry and the J3/Operations and Africa Team Leader for the Joint Force Headquarters on global crisis response. He assumed command of the Armoured Trials and Development Unit in August 2021.
Foremost are his passion for flying (fixed winged aircraft), speed riding (skiing with a small parachute) and reforming the Army's least useful anachronisms.

Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Hanlon

 Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Hanlon was commissioned into the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carbiniers and Greys) in 1999. He served his early Regimental career in Germany as a Challenger II (Main Battle Tank) troop commander. As a Squadron Commander he converted to a Reconnaissance role serving with 1st The Queens Dragoon Guards.
Operational tours include Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. Staff appointments include Military Assistant to the General Officer Commanding the UK Support Command in German, Land capability lead in British Embassy in the USA and the programme manager for the CT40 Cannon in Defence Equipment & Support.
He is currently leading the Army’s SoldierWorks team which is taking a ‘platform’ approach to delivering an Integrated Soldier System.

Lieutenant Colonel Martijn Hadicke

Lieutenant Colonel Mikkel Gorsetbakk

 Lieutenant Colonel Mikkel Gorsetbakk received a Bachelor degree of Military Studies from the Norwegian Army Military Academy in 2005 and a Masters degree of Military Studies from US Marine Corps University in 2021. He has been in service in the Norwegian Armed Forces since 1996, working mainly within Electronic Warfare, Intelligence, and Communications. LtCol Gorsetbakk’s operational experience includes several tours in Kosovo and Afghanistan. His current position is CO of the Army Land Warfare Center’s Combat Lab, and he is project manager for project “Future Combat Unit”.

Lieutenant Colonel Simon Pope

 Lt Col Pope commissioned from Sandhurst into the AAC in 2002. Following a 6-month infantry attachment in Northern Ireland as a Platoon Commander, he completed the Army Pilot’s Course in 2004. Subsequently posted to 4 Regiment AAC on Lynx he deployed on Op ALTHEA to Banja Luka and Sarajevo in Bosnia, before being selected at short notice for an exchange tour with 847 Naval Air Sqn in Yeovilton in 2006.

A range of CHF deployments followed including Sierra Leone embarked on HMS Ocean, Norway, Denmark and mountain flying in France. Qualifying as a Airborne Forward Air Controller (AbFAC) he deployed with 847 NAS on Op TELIC in 2007 on Lynx Mk9, also deploying on the ground to Al-Amarah as a JTAC. Awarded a Joint Commanders Commendation he joined 657 Sqn at RAF Odiham, conducting a range of operational and training deployments across Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe, Central and South America. Finally being finally prised out of the cockpit in 2011 he became Adjutant of 9 Regt AAC within 16 Air Assault Brigade, concurrently completing a Masters with King’s College London (KCL).

Promoted to Major and attending ICSC(L) in 2013, he served in the Army’s Capability Directorate, focused on the development of the STRIKE Brigade and Divisional C2. In 2018 he went on to reform and command 659 Sqn in January 2018 on Wildcat. The Sqn initially focused on Apache and Wildcat Attack Reconnaissance Teaming, before conducting a range of deployments including JOINT WARRIOR with 16 Air Asslt Bde, mountain flying in Southern France and IRON PYTHON with 3 AAC Battlegroup. 659 was also the first Sqn to requalify as an Air Observation Post, supporting the Royal Tank Regiment in Oman before assuming high readiness and deploying on to Croatia alongside Apache, Chinook and French Tiger.

On promotion, Lt Col Pope attended ACSC from 2019 before assuming Unit command in 2020. He joined Fin Mil Cap Joint Plans in MoD in January 2023 as SO1 C4ISR, where he has been the desk lead on drafting the Defence Uncrewed Systems Strategy. A keen guitarist who has played in a number of bands, he has also recently (finally) completed a PhD at KCL researching strategic agency and decision-making.

Lieutenant Colonel Sjoerd Mevissen

 
Sjoerd started his career in 1994 at the Royal Military Academy. He served in several positions within the Royal Engineers. After his Master in Civil Engineering and Management he became lecturer and researcher at the Military Academy. He attended the general staff officer course after which he worked as senior officer at the Defence Material Organization, in the strategy and planning branch at Army HQ and MoD level. Currently he is commander of the RAS-unit and involved in the RAS program since 2018. Sjoerd served in Macedonia, Albania and Afghanistan. He is married and has two children.

Major Charles Bradford

Major Nicola Vecchione

Maj. Nicola Vecchione currently serves as SO2 in the concept development branch, a subset of the Innovation and Space office of the Italian Army General Staff.
Before assuming the SO position in the Italian Army General Staff, Maj. Vecchione held numerous operational positions as field artillery officer, serving in various Operations, such as UNIFIL, “Prima Parthica” in Iraq and KTCC. As Staff Officer Maj. Vecchione served in planning and operations branches.
His program management experience, especially in CD&E experiments, spans from investigating the impact of Emerging & Disruptive Technologies in the way ITA Army conducts operations to various robotics autonomous systems programs for the Defense.

Major Peter Corvers

 Peter is a trained military engineer, designer and leader. He has led numerous innovation projects within the NLD Army, including the development of a framework of military design & innovation practices. He is currently assigned to the Material & IT Command where he is responsible for the Program CUGS.

Mr Alain Tremblay BGen (ret’d)

Alain is a result-oriented executive with a solid experience in management of complex issues, strategic planning, government policy and leadership. This unique blend of strategic and tactical planning talents was acquired over the last 30 year through various positions held with the Canadian Forces, the Department of National Defence, the Privy Council Office and as an executive with Rheinmetall Canada.
Alain joined Rheinmetall Canada in march 2011. Prior to this appointment, he was serving in the Canadian Armed Forces commanding the Land Forces Quebec Area.
Between 1982 and 1996, he cumulated command and staff positions with the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment; 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment in Lahr, Germany; the Headquarters 5e Groupe Brigade du Canada in Valcartier; the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment; and finally at [the] National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa and [in] the National Defence Operations Centre.
In April 1996, he was posted to the United Nations Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina as military advisor to the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General. Between October 1997 and July 1999, he assumed command of the 3rd Battalion, Royal 22e Régiment. Afterwards, he was posted again to [the] National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, in the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff Group. He assumed the direction of the Canadian Forces Recruitment Group in July 2001. In 2004, Mr. Tremblay commanded a Task Force in Afghanistan. He was then selected to be part of the CF Transformation Team. In 2006, he was appointed as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Privy Council Office. From 2006 to 2010 he was the Director-General Land Capability Development for the Land Forces.
Mr. Tremblay is a graduate of the Collège Militaire Royal, the University of Sherbrooke, the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College, and the Canadian Forces Land Command and Staff College.

Mr Amish Patel

 Amish Patel is a Senior Engineer at Pearson Engineering. After achieving an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield, Amish's journey at Pearson Engineering began in 2017 where he joined as a Graduate Engineer. Since joining, Amish has led on R&D developments within the robotics and autonomous arena. In his commitment to advancing in the field, Amish is currently on the path to achieving Chartered Engineer status with the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

The vast experience gained through testing and refining robotic systems for military end-users has allowed Amish to develop and refine solutions to aid combat engineers and their efforts. As the military world shifts towards a more robotic and autonomous mindset, his work has primarily focussed on the development of robotic and autonomous combat engineering equipment.

Mr Benjamin Fowle

 Ben leads industry engagement for Applied Intuition Government, with a focus on major defense primes and international governments. He previously worked on Project Maven at Palantir and served for 18 years in overseas national security roles on behalf of the US government.

Mr Chris Gibbs

Mr Duby Cohen

Mr Guy Powell

 Guy Powell is Principal Adviser (Mounted systems) to the Land Systems Programme within Dstl. He is also Principal Technical Authority for project JTARR (Joint Tactical Autonomous Resupply and Replenishment) leading a team conducting scientific assessment of RAS technologies, through trials and supporting studies of exemplar ground platforms. While the primary focus of this work is application to Autonomous Resupply, it will likely have wider applicability across a range of capabilities.
Guy has worked in Defence R&D for over 30 years across a breadth of technical areas including land platforms, Robotics & Autonomous Systems (RAS), weapons and energetic materials.

Mr James Cartlidge MP

 James Cartlidge MP was appointed a Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence on 21 April 2023. He was previously Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from 28 October 2022 to 21 April 2023.
He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice and Assistant Government Whip between 17 September 2021 and 7 July 2022.

Mr James Gavin

 James Gavin is the head of the Future Capability Group (FCG) at Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S).

The FCG exists to help explore new capabilities so that they can then be exploited at scale. Increasingly projects are ‘Agile By Default’ to deliver early operational advantage. The Group works closely with all the Front-line Commands, DSTL and central MOD areas such as the DIU and DASA. James has served in the military, the civil service and industry before joining DE&S. He is a passionate advocate of delivering Operational Advantage through a better application of strategic thinking on innovation, inclusive cultures and sustainability.

Mr Mario Martinho

 Mario Martinho is the Head of the Capability & Technology Group Ground Systems at the European Defence Agency, responsible for coordinating the Agency’s Research and Technology activities for Military Land Systems.
The topics under his responsibility include combat and multipurpose platforms, manned and unmanned; integrated systems; soldier systems; combat engineering systems; protection of forces, including C-IED; and logistics for land operations.
In addition, Mario is responsible for the coordination of the EDA Action Plan on Autonomous Systems.
He holds a master’s degree in Military Engineering, a postgraduate qualification in Military Sciences – Security and Defence, and is a PhD candidate in Political Science.

Mr Markus Otsus

 Markus Otsus is a project coordinator at the Estonian Military Academy’s Department of Applied Research. He has lead multiple projects relating to the field of unmanned ground vehicles within the Estonian Defence Forces as well as participated in various EDIDP and EDA projects. Having started as a UGV operator at various field training exercises with the Estonian Defence Forces, he has since conducted numerous field tests, social and ethical studies relating to the use of UGVs and most recently help conduct the first Unmanned Ground Vehicles Autonomy Trials in Estonia.

Mr Martin Joesaar

 Mr Martin Jõesaar served in the Estonian Defence Forces for 16 years as an officer. He added valuable contribution into the integration of Short Range Air Defence Missile Systems to the existing units at the early stage of his career. However, the latter part and the majority of his time was spent on helping to build up the Special Operations Forces Unit in order to meet the new challenges of NATO. This included different command positions within in the structure and contribution as an instructor and an operations officer at the HQ, including a deployment to Afghanistan under CJSOTF10 in 2012.
In 2019, Mr Jõesaar left the military in a rank of major and joined the Defence Industry side instead as the COO of an unmanned aerial systems developer and producer Threod Systems, based in Estonia. Additionally to the everyday coordination, ensuring the smooth process flow internally in the factory, one of the main roles for him was sharing the end-user experience. Threod Systems specialises on providing the state of the art equipment tailored according to the needs of the military and security forces. In which it is crucial to understand the intelligence collection details and its connections to the higher level HQ planning process for providing the full solution for the clients.
In the end of 2020, Mr Jõesaar accepted the offer to become the representative of the participating member states of the iMUGS project. By being the link between the industry consortium and the participating nations, he will play the key role in ensuring the full transparency of the project and helping all counterparts to understand the process in the mutual way. Coordinating such a complex international and multilingual project was the kind of challenge he gladly accepted.

Mr Nicholas Valentine

 Nicky is the Lead Engineer on the British Army’s Human Machine Teaming project. He has an MSc in Robotics and Automation and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering. Following graduation he completed the DE&S engineering graduate scheme with placements including the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Clearpath Robotics and Horiba MIRA. In his time in the Future Capability Group he has taken a leading technical role on Robotic Platoon Vehicles, Heavy UGV Challenge, and the Leader Follower logistics element of Project THESEUS. An Army Reservist, in 2017 he deployed as an infrastructure engineer on Op KIPION, designing and delivering infrastructure across Ops TORAL and SHADER, and is now a Troop Sgt in the Royal Engineers Railway Team.

Mr Raul Rikk

 Raul Rikk has been the strategy and development director of Milrem Robotics since 2022. His areas of responsibility are strategic planning, development of military robotics concepts and execution of long-term development projects, including EU and NATO projects.

Previously, he worked as the director of national cyber security at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, and his main role was to manage, organize and coordinate the provision of national cyber security domestically and internationally, compile relevant policies and development plans and monitor their implementation and performance, lead initiatives and prepare draft legislation regulating the field.

Before that, Raul was involved in the development of digital society and cyber security capabilities in various countries and international projects. He is one of the founders of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence leading its creation in 2004 - 2008. www.ccdcoe.org Also, he has been the creator of the National Cyber Security Index - www.ncsi.ega.ee

Raul has worked in the field of national defense and security since 1994. He has a master's degree in national defense management from the Finnish National Defense University and a master's degree in information technology management from Tallinn University. He is also a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College.

Mr Robert Seymour

 Bob served in the British Army for 22 years, originally as a Royal Signals officer and latterly in the Army Air Corps (AAC). He completed tours of North Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq (3 tours) and Afghanistan (2 tours). A graduate of Army Command and Staff College, he was also Military Assistant (MA) to Commander Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) and head of JHC Future Plans. He is still an active Reservist and is currently a Colonel working for Stratcom.
He transitioned to industry in 2015 as a Business Development Director for BT Defence and Security working on New Style of IT (NSoIT) and SkyNet 6 Service Delivery Wrap (SDW). He also led the BT ‘Headquarters of the Future’ for Strategic Command. He subsequently became Defence Director for Prolinx, a secure defence and government cloud and end point provider. During this time Prolinx provided one of the four key cloud pillars into Defence Digital ASDT. In 2019, Bob become the Cyber and Electromagnetic Activity (CEMA) Campaign Director for Roke, providing Electronic Warfare capability into thirteen countries as well as leading UK CEMA research and development with DSTL. Bob took over as ESUK VP C4I and Cyber in Sept 2021. The Business Unit (BU) is centred around four key areas; tactical communications including the E-LYNX family of SDR, battle management systems built on the combat proven ECIX tactical middleware, robotics and autonomy (RAS) and cyber. The BU provided the BMA under Morpheus EvO and is delivering the Dismounted Joint Fires Integrator (DJFI) and several RAS capabilities to the UK MoD as well as exports to Canada.
After three attempts due to COVID, Bob got married in early June 22 and has two young children. When time permits, he enjoys ski mountaineering, road cycling and military history.

Mr Robert Howe

 Spanning +40 years, Robert’s background is in system and software engineering for complex industrial systems. He is also an entrepreneur who has founded, grown and divested two Netherlands-based software engineering companies.

Mr Ronen Brill

Mr Santiago Gambon

 Santiago Gambón Cerdá is the Director of International Business Development at Ghost Robotics. In his current role, Santiago leads global efforts, delivering tailored solutions for complex challenges by understanding market trends and client needs. Mr. Gambón has vast knowledge in the field of robotics and remotely piloted aircraft systems. With over seven years of industry experience excelling in business development and client relations, he effectively bridges engineering teams with end-users for successful system implementation and business growth.

Mr Steven Herrick

 Mr. Steven Herrick is the Product Manager for the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle (PM RCV) program.
Mr. Herrick is responsible for all cost, schedule and performance for both hardware and software programs that will deliver the Army’s first RCV Brigade Combat Teams.
The RCV Hardware program will deliver a safe, reliable, and remotely operated combat vehicle with a modular open systems architecture approach and system design to support continuous growth and enhancement of RCV capabilities.
The RCV Software program will deliver the software, development infrastructure, and processes to support persistent modernization and enhancement of RCV capabilities.

Mr Tiago Lanca

 Tiago Mendes Lança is as a Project Officer for Innovation at the European Defence Agency. His role in the Hub for European Defence Innovation (HEDI) includes activities related to the Uptake of Innovation. He served the Portuguese Navy as a naval officer for 12 years, in various roles on board warships, with deployments in several real-world operations, notably EUNAVFOR ATALANTA (Gulf of Aden), the Flag Officer Sea Training with the Royal Navy, humanitarian disaster relief operations in Africa and various multinational joint exercises. He was a staff officer in the Portuguese Navy Fleet Command (N3/N5 Operations and Planning). In 2017 he was the founder of the Unmanned Systems Operational Experimentation Unit (CEOV), a new technological guerrilla unit that performed experimentation and rapid prototyping with unmanned systems, which supported both capacity building efforts and operations with Portuguese Marine Corps and Navy SOF. He supported the development of Portuguese Navy's maritime operational experimentation center (CEOM) in Troia, and the REP MUS exercise series. In 2020, he was seconded as a national expert to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) where he coordinated the implementation of research and innovation pilot projects related with surveillance and border control, in particular, a maritime surveillance Aerostat project in Greece, the Prize Contest on the Detection of Low Flying Objects in Estonia and a project on the integration Vertical Take Off and Landing UAVs on board maritime assets in Italy for coast guard functions.

Ms Anna Dowle

 A seasoned veteran of the Women's Royal Naval Service, boasting an extensive 20+ years tenure in the private sector, proficient in spearheading multi-million-pound Projects, Programmes, and Portfolios across diverse sectors, particularly within Government Departments. Notable expertise lies in Enterprise and Strategic risk management. Presently, serving as a Business Consultant within the British Army Headquarters, while concurrently pursuing a Professional Doctorate in Security and Risk Management (DSyRM). This doctoral focus centres on unravelling the intricate Human Factors imperative in the development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Weapon Systems.

Ms Georgia Hinds

Georgia is a Legal Adviser with the ICRC, working on the legal and humanitarian implications of autonomous weapons, AI and other new technologies of warfare. Previously, she was Head of Legal for the ICRC in the Philippines and has also served as the Regional Legal Adviser for ICRC in the Pacific.
Prior to joining the ICRC, Georgia worked in the Office of International Law, Australian Attorney-General's Department, advising the Australian Government on public international law including international humanitarian and human rights law, and international criminal law. She practiced as a solicitor in commercial law in Brisbane, Sydney and Singapore, and has also served as a Reservist Officer with the Australian Army.
Georgia holds a Master of Laws in International Law (Distinction) from the Australian National University, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Arts from Griffith University and is admitted as solicitor of the Supreme Court of the Queensland and the High Court of Australia.

Ms Nataliia Kushnerska

 For 15 years, Nataliia has been the General manager at the event agency Diplomat Service, leading more than 50 projects in Ukraine and abroad. Nataliia also has experience working with government institutions; she’s been an advisor to the First Deputy Minister of Economy. Since early 2023, as Chief Operations Officer at the Ukrainian defense tech cluster Brave1, Nataliia has been responsible for cooperation with government institutions, enterprises, developers, funds, startups, and Ukrainian Defense tech representatives. With Brave1 officially launched on April 26th, 2023, Nataliia and her team unite the Defense tech ecosystem, scale it up, and push it forward to bring the victory closer through tech innovations.

Ms Verena Jackson

Verena Jackson is a Legal Advisor and Researcher& Lecturer at Center for Intelligence & Security Studies (CISS) at the University of the Armed Forces of Germany.
After completing her legal studies with a focus on International and European Law in Germany and Spain, she worked for international law firms and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (a partnership institute of the German and US Military). She also has additional training in American Law from the 7th Army JMTC Staff Judge Advocate, Grafenwoehr Germany.
Her academic research and expertise to the Federal Ministry of Defense focus on legal aspects of the use of AI in military and emerging technologies, c-UAVs and Cyberoperations.
 

Ms Zoe Stanley-Lockman

 Zoe Stanley-Lockman is an Innovation Officer in NATO’s Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber Division at NATO Headquarters. In this role, she works at the strategy level to accelerate adoption of emerging and disruptive technologies. Zoe previously worked on military innovation at research institutes in Paris, Brussels and Singapore. She has published on military innovation and technology governance with Oxford University Press, Georgetown University, the Journal for Strategic Studies, and various research institutes. Originally from the United States, she holds a Master’s degree in International Security and Defence Economics from Sciences Po Paris and a Bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.