Brigadier General Imre Porkoláb

Professional Experience:

2022-Current - MoD, Cabinet office of the Minister of Defence
Director, Defence Innovation - as Ministerial Commissioner building up the national defence innovation ecosystem, liaising with multiple governmental organisations, large defence companies, the academic and science sector and the international community.

2021-2022 - MCC, A4LC, Director
Director, Academy for Leading Change - building up a unique innovation leadership education portfolio for the future leadership of Hungary. Also establishing a brand new Research Institute for Flow research.

2018-2020 - Government Office of the Prime Minister
Deputy National Armament Director, R&D and innovation - overseeing defence industry and defence capability building, and directing national innovation projects between industry, academia and government sector.

2015-2018 - The Pentagon
Supreme Allied Commander Transformation’s representative to the Pentagon - liaison with the US Joint Staff, DoD, OSD, State Department and Think Tanks in the Washington DC area, aligning NATO capability development projects, monitoring US and Allied innovation ecosystem building. Promoted to Brigadier General.

2011-2015 - NATO Allied Command Transformation
National Liaison Representative at ACT - representing the CHOD at the NATO Strategic Command, linking up the Hungarian Defense Forces with NATO capability building, force transformation training, and exercises.
 

2009-2011 - 34th Bercsényi László Special Forces Battalion
Commanding O?cer - command of the Special Forces Battalion when it started the Afghanistan mission and completed seven full spectrum operational SOTU rotations in theatre. Promoted to Colonel.

2008-2009 - Operation Enduring Freedom: Afghanistan
Operational Tour: Chief of Partnering, J3, SOCEE - facilitating the training, selection and logistics of all NATO SOF Afghan partners. At the same time (the first Hungarian SOTU deployment to Afghanistan) I was overseeing the preparation and later on taken command of the deployment.

2007-2009 - Hungarian Defence Forces, Joint Force Command
Chief of SOF department, G3, Joint Force Command - directing the development of the Hungarian special forces capability at the operational level. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
 

2004-2007 - Hungarian Defence Staff, J3
SOF capability program manager - directing the development of the Hungarian special forces capability at the strategic level. Promoted to Major.

2003-2004 - Operation Iraqi Freedom: Iraq
Operational Tour: Chief Analysis and Production, J2, Multinational Division South East - intelligence analysis and foresight for the multinational division in Iraq.

1998-2002 - Ministry of Defence
Military Assistant to the Deputy State Secretary for International Affairs (1998-1999) /ADC to the Chief of Defense Staff (CHOD) (1999-2000). Organising, planning and harmonising the executive’s agenda.

1994-1998 - 25 Klapka György MI Brigade
Various command and staff positions in the Brigade, including platoon and company commander and S3 (operations).
 

Captain Konstantijn Strick

2007-2012: Royal Military Academy, Brussels
2012-2015: ISTAR Battalion, Heverlee: Formation to recce platoon commander, recce platoon commander
2015-2017: Platoon Commander and instructor in the joint NCO school, Sint-Truiden
2017-present: Material Manager for dismounted Weapons and Sensors, Defense Staff, Evere (Brussels)

Colonel (Ret.) Richard Hansen

As Former Program Manager, Soldier Warrior, PEO Soldier, US Army COL (R) Hansen spent 26 years in the US Army in both the war fighting and acquisition fields. He held various command and staff positions in self-propelled, towed, and airborne artillery units and fire support elements. His research, development, and acquisition experience includes various assignments as a product,
project, or program manager in electric guns, armored vehicles, and precision guided munitions. In his last 4 years of service as the Project Manager for Soldier Warrior, he was responsible for weapons, clothing, and equipment for aviation crewmen (Air Warrior), dismounted Soldiers (Land Warrior, Ground Soldier Ensemble), and vehicle crewmen (Mounted Soldier).

Colonel Art van Beekhuizen

Colonel Art van Beekhuizen is at the moment Project Manager Soldier Modernisation within the Defence Materiel Organisation of the NLD MoD.
He started his military career in 1993 at the Naval Academy. His first appointment was platoon commander within the 23rd Inf Coy of the 2nd Marine Battalion. Throughout the years he was assigned infantry and logistic appointments. He completed Staff College in 2012-2013. From 2019-2022 he was CO of the Marine Barracks Savaneta on Aruba.
His first operational tour was as a Battle Captain responsible for Logistic Supply within the UN Mission Ethiopia Eritrea in 2000-2001. He did two tours to Afghanistan. One as a Company Commander and one as head of a police training assessment team stationed at Camp Eggers in Kabul.
His current goal is to increase the awareness within projects that the cubic meter around the dismounted soldier is a system. To secure operational effectiveness, survivability and sustainment are key to success.

Colonel Dan Anders-Brown

Colonel János Pölöskei

Col János Pölöskei is the branch head of the HDFC Force Development Directorate, Command and Control Systems Development Branch, where he is leading his team in the field of preparation of procurements of land and air command and control systems and radar systems.

He started his career in 1987 and graduated as an artillery officer from the military college in 1990. Before starting with procurement activities he spent several years in tactical level positions from platoon to brigade level. After a successful career in lower positions he became an operations planner at operational and strategic level, where he participated several NATO and national planning activities.

Col Pölöskei went for mission to Kosovo in 2003 and 2017, and to Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006 where he got valuable operational experiences.
He currently is studying the second year in the Doctoral School of the National University of Public Service and researches the field of capability development.

Colonel Paul Cummings

Having read for a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Liverpool before entering the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2000, Colonel Paul Cummings commissioned into The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) in December of that year.

His career at Regimental Duty saw him based in Germany for his early years with deployments to Bosnia, Iraq, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan. Most recently, he commanded 6 Armoured Close Support Battalion REME between August 2017 and February 2020, deploying the Battalion to Canada twice and to Oman in 2019 where he commanded the Combat Service Support and Theatre Enabling Group for the joint Omani-British Exercise Khanjar Oman. His proudest moment in command was collecting the Worshipful Company of Turner’s trophy on behalf of his soldiers and officers, awarded to the best REME Battalion 2019.

His staff appointments have largely been in capability and acquisition, with several tours of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), and in logistics as Deputy Chief of Staff 102 Logistic Brigade. His first post in DE&S was as the Heavy Logistic Vehicles Requirements Manager, and then on promotion to Lieutenant Colonel as the Military Assistant to the 3* Chief of Materiel (Land). He returned to DE&S, to the Vehicle Support Team, in 2020 on promotion to Colonel, spending a year as the Senior Operations Manager heading up the Optimisation portfolio, looking to drive efficiencies across the in-service vehicle fleet, before moving to become Deputy Head and, latterly, Acting Head. He was appointed to his current post in May 2022 where he and his team are responsible for delivering Dismounted Close Combat capability - Survivability, Lethality, and Surveillance & Target Acquisition - to the Army and United Kingdom Strategic Command.

Colonel Cummings is a graduate of the Advanced Command and Staff Course, holds a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Mechanical Engineering, a Master of Arts in Defence Studies from King’s College London, and is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. A keen, although slightly lapsed, cyclist, Colonel Cummings is married to Caroline a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser with whom he has two young daughters.

Command Sergeant Major Niels Moelleskov

Niels Moelleskov has been a NCO for 40 years and in the last 30 years been working as an SME on Individual Equipment for the Danish Soldiers. Recently Niels has been involved in the project for the new Nordic Combat Uniform system as the Danish User Representative.
Niels has been a member of CCIEP for more than 15 years and since last year has been the Chairman of the Group.
Niels's latest Deployment was to the Afghan National Officers Academy in Kabul in 2014/15 where he acted as a mentor in the S7/Skill at Arms Section.

Dr Darren Browning

Dr Darren Browning works for Dstl as senior technical lead on Power Sources. He manages and performs research into a range of power systems for all three MOD services, but has recently specialised on the dismounted soldier. Darren also leads on a range of international collaborations including chairing the NATO Land Capability Group Power Team of Experts.
Over the past 25 years he has worked for DRA, QinetiQ and now Dstl on many aspects of energy storage including batteries, fuel cells and energy harvesting for a wide range of military and commercial applications.

Dr James Luke

With over 25 years’ experience delivering artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to National Security and Defence clients, he has held several key leadership roles, including CTO for UK Public Sector in IBM Global Business Services, Chief Architect for IBM Watson Tools and the lead architect for the IBM Text Analytics Group.

As Innovation Director he is responsible for driving investment, development and exploitation of innovation activities, balancing focus on customer campaigns with exploratory work to build opportunities, skills and intellectual property for Roke’s future. One of his key focuses is to support current and future product development in domains including cyber, electronic warfare, counter-measures, agile software and situational awareness technologies.

James read for his first degree in Electronic Engineering Systems at the Royal Naval Engineering College (RNEC), working on radar, communications and electronic warfare. After leaving the Royal Navy, James worked on data analysis in Formula 1 and witnessed the importance of being the first to exploit cutting edge technologies.

In 2003, James completed his PhD with the Image, Speech and Intelligent Systems Group of the University of Southampton, and researched the application of intelligent agents to detect previously unseen computer viruses.

He is passionate about artificial intelligence (AI) and, specifically, about using AI to solve real world problems. As an experienced programmer, in recent years he has focussed on natural language understanding and extracting meaningful data from documents. James is also an accomplished inventor with over 20 patents in AI (and several more pending!).

Dr Martin Hagström

Martin Hagström is a Deputy Research Director at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). Martin is the programme manager of the Weapons and protection area and responsible for the support to the Swedish Armed Forces’ weapons and protection research planning. He has served in several different positions at FOI and participated in a number of national and international research projects. Martin has a background in systems and control and besides work on legal aspects of autonomous weapon systems he is involved in analysis of systems of systems and assessment of combat effectiveness.

Dr Navin Mathur

Dr. Navin Mathur has over 14 years of experience working with US Army C5ISR Center/RTI. Dr. Mathur is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in the area of Augmented Reality (AR), Assured PNT (APNT) and targeting. Dr. Mathur’s current work focus is in the area of developing technologies to support Augmented Reality (AR) and Far Target Location (FTL) systems. Dr. Mathur’s current research focus is in the area of: effective utilization of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) techniques to enhance dismount Situational Awareness (SA) at the tactical edge. Dr. Mathur has earned his BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering.

Dr Nicolas G. Mueller

Dr. Nicolas G. Mueller studied chemistry, physics and national security. 6 years research in laser engineering, worked several years as ICRC coordinator/delegate, 1999-2001 in Afghanistan. Worked 2001-2005 as international strategy consultant. Subsequently in Joint Staff as PM Swiss Information Operations Force. 2007-2016 he was the federal crisis management advisor, directed the federal strategic crisis exercises, organized yearly OECD conferences and advised the Swiss Government in crisis early warning and -management. Since 2017 Head Weapons and Ammunition at armasuisse. General staff colonel, former deputy head of operations (G3) of Swiss Land Forces and reconnaissance battalion commander. Adjunct professor at Geneva School of Diplomacy, teaches national crisis management and future of warfare.

Dr Robb Wilcox

Dr Sebastian Gies

Dr. Sebastian Gies is the Project Lead for the Soldier System D-LBO (Digitization of Land-Based Operations) at the German Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw; Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support).
Graduating from the Philipps-University Marburg after obtaining a B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD (Dr. rer. nat) in physics, he worked at Sandia National Laboratories as a Postdoctoral Appointee before joining the BAAINBw as a project management professional.

Lieutenant Colonel Arran Wade

Lt Col Wade was commissioned into the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment in 2002 and has amassed 13 years of Regimental Duty in the Unit.

He has deployed in a broad spectrum of roles across a range of operations from Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, and Iraq including numerous Short Term Training Teams across the wider Levant and Persian Gulf. He has gained command combat experience from Fire Support Group command, Company command and as a Task Force Deputy Commander. He has also worked closely with a US partner force, as an embedded liaison officer.

He has commanded the UK Jungle and Tracking School in Brunei and formalised an exchange with the US Lightening Academy Jungle Warfare Division, based in Honolulu, Hawaii. For his staff appointments he has been employed within the Security, Policy & Operations Directorate, MOD, focused on Counter Terrorism and UK Operations.

Lt Col Wade completed both the Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land) in 2011 and the Advanced Staff College in 2020, taking over command at CAMS in March 2021.

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 SDSR15 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 Gareth Davies

Lt Col Gareth Davies took over as SO1 Soldier Systems in Jan 2019. His main role is to deliver new Dismounted Close Combat capabilities to service across the Defence Lines of Development. He is the lead in setting up TommyWorks, a new organisation focussing on Soldier System Integration and more agile and iterative delivery of future capabilities. Career wise, he has completed 5 operational tours as an infantry commander including Iraq and Afghanistan twice and has previous experience as a Requirements Manager for the FIST programme and Chief of Staff of Soldier, Training and Special Projects team within DE&S.

Lieutenant Colonel Melissa E. Johnson

Lieutenant Colonel Melissa E. Johnson is a native of Augusta, Georgia and received her Commission through the U.S. Army Reserve Officer’s Training Program in 2002, upon graduation from Augusta State University. She was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Branch, where she served in operational units at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Fort Gordon and Fort Stewart, GA. Previous operational assignments for Lieutenant Colonel Johnson include Battalion Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense Staff Officer, Commander, Charlie Company, 369th Signal Battalion, and a deployment to Iraq as the Battle Captain, ACoS G-2, 3d Infantry Division.
Lieutenant Colonel Johnson was assessed in the Army Acquisition Corps in 2011. In 2011, she was assigned to the Night Vision Electronics and Sensors Directorate as a Science and Technology Project Officer and later as an Assistant Product Director for Threat Detection Systems. She was later assigned to Project Management Office, Soldier Sensors and Lasers where she served as an Assistant Product Manager for the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle. Following her tenure as an Assistant Product Manager, she was selected to serve as the Executive Officer to the Program Executive Officer Soldier. Lieutenant Colonel Johnson was later assigned to the Pentagon, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASA(ALT)) where she served as a Department of the Army Systems Coordinator (DASC) for the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle Program (AMPV). Upon completion of her tenure as a DASC, she was selected to serve as the Assistant Executive Officer to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology). Lieutenant Colonel Johnson completed a Training with Industry tour with partner Motorola Solutions, and recently completed an assignment as a Program Manager for the International Solutions Office, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
Lieutenant Colonel Johnson’s education includes a Bachelor of Science Degree from Augusta State University in Biology and a Master of Business Administration specializing in Human Resource Management from the University of Phoenix. Her military education includes the Chemical Officer Basic Course, the Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course, Army Acquisition Basic Course, and the Command and General Staff College Intermediate Level Education. She is a certified member of the Army Acquisition Corps with Level III certification in Program Management and Level II certification in Science and Technology Management.
Lieutenant Colonel Johnson’s awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, and the Army Meritorious Unit Commendation Award.
Lieutenant Colonel Johnson has two children: Emani (15) and Elijah (14).

Lieutenant Colonel Mike Baxter

Lt Col Mike Baxter is SO1 Light Forces, responsible for Dismounted Close Combat and Soldier Systems capability within the British Army’s Futures Directorate. As such his team develop future requirements for the Air Manoeuvre, Light and Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Teams (BCT), including any General Service or common requirements for Soldier Systems and land equipment for all Army BCTs and Force Elements, plus coordination with the Royal Marines and RAF Regiment.
Mike has been an infantry soldier for over 30 years and deployed on operational tours in Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as tours of the Falkland Islands, Cyprus, the Middle East and Africa. He has served, both operationally and in staff appointments, at Company, Battalion and Brigade HQ level plus appointments at Phase 1 Training, as a liaison officer with the RAF and at DE&S.
Prior to his current appointment (in Jan 21), he was on the Mechanised Infantry Programme, procuring Boxer vehicles for the British Army.

Lieutenant Colonel Susana Margarida Gomes Pinto

Lieutenant Colonel SUSANA PINTO is the C4I Project Manager of the Portuguese Soldier's Combat System Program.
She was born in Lisbon in 1980 and graduated from the Portuguese Military Academy in 2004 as an Electrical and Computer Engineering Officer.
Throughout her military life, she served in several Portuguese Army Units, namely she was posted in the Light Infantry Brigade as a Platoon Leader of the Signal´s Company, later she was CIS Tactics instructor in Combined Arms School and currently she is the Head of Information System´s Department in Army´s CIS Directorate.
Internationally, she was posted in KFOR Tactical Reserve Manoeuvre Battalion as the CIS Officer (Sep07-Mar08).

Lieutenant Colonel William Jerrold

Lt Col William Jerold currently works in Systems Acquisition at the Royal Marines Commando Force Programme. Previous experience includes:

• Communications Officer for a Commando Unit covering large scale amphibious exercises with the US in 2007
• Battle Captain in Combined Force Ops Room in Afghanistan in 2008
• UK Commando Forces J3 Operations Officer for NATO Ex COLD Response 2019

Major Koen Ceulemans

Joined Belgium Defence in 1999, went through the Royal Military Acadamy and became a lieutenant within the Para-commando Regt. Multiple deployments in Africa and Middle East. Since 2016 heavily involved with the transformation to Special Operations Regiment.
Since 2020 started to promote Innovation within the Special Operations Regiment and now seating as Innovation Officer for the Landcomponent.
Nerd, geek, broadly interested in technology and an adept of lifelong learning. Loves to start DIY projects. Not an SME more a Jack-Of-All-Trades.
Happily married and has fantastic twin daughters.

Major Magnus Hallberg

Infantry officer, the career consists of a mix of different positions within infantry and Mechanized battalions.
Graduated from Staff collage 2002 and completed Battalion Commander Course 2003, since 2004 at Land Warfare Centre development department.
Test and trial manager on Swedish soldier modernization, PM/ReqM on Combat clothing and PPE.
A member of LCG DSS since 2004, Deputy Chairman 2012-18, Chairman 2019---
Involved in the NORDEFCO project on Nordic Combat Uniform as leader of the User Working Group.

Major Mark Stone

Maj Mark Stone joined the Army in 2011 and commissioned into the Parachute Regiment. He served in posts as Platoon Commander of a rifle platoon, and a specialist machine gun platoon, before serving for 2 years in he US Army’s 82 Airborne Division as a UK exchange officer. Upon return he commanded the Intelligence, Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) Company in the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment. This role set him up to complete the United Kingdom Defence Academy Battlespace Technology Course (BTC14) to then assume the role as the Requirements Manager for the British Army’s Dismounted Close Combat night vision systems.

Major Matti Finnilä

Major Matti Finnilä is the project manager for Small Arms Family 2030-, Night Combat Capability 2025- and Soldier Equipment-projects of the Dismounted Soldier Program in the Finnish Army. He is also the chief instructor of the Sniper Center of Excellence. Major Finnilä has 20 years' experience of both light and mechanized infantry including two deployments to Afghanistan.

Major Michael O'Connor

Major O’Connor enlisted into the New Zealand Army in January 1981 serving as an Infantry soldier in the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. He has served with the 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment in both Singapore and New Zealand, and has completed postings to the 2nd/1st Infantry Battalion and reserve infantry units obtaining the rank of Warrant Officer Class One holding a number of senior appointments. Throughout his soldier career Major O’Connor has undertaken a range of regimental, staff and training appointments including postings as an instructor at the Army Schools and Cadre appointments, completing his soldier career in Army General Staff as the infantry career manager.
Major O’Connor was commissioned in 2012 as a general list officer at the rank of Captain and appointed as the adjutant for 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment and was subsequently promoted to Major as the Executive Officer in 2015. In 2017 he was posted to Headquarters Joint Forces New Zealand as a Staff Officer planning, for overseas operations. He was posted to the Australian Army Land Warfare Centre in 2018 as an instructor at the Officer Training Wing.
Major O’Connor has deployed on operations with the Multinational Force and Observers in Egypt, the United Nations in East Timor, the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan and as a staff officer within the Headquarters of the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve based in Kuwait.
Major O’Connor is a graduate of the New Zealand Command and Staff College (Joint) and holds a Masters in Strategic Studies from the Victoria University, of Wellington.
Major O’Connor was appointed as the Capability Manager Soldier Modernisation Office on 12 December 2021.

Major Simon de Bettignies

MAJ de Bettignies joined the Army in 2008 after his initial course at the academy of Saint-Cyr. Posted in Armoured Infantry Regiment from 2008 to 2016 as platoon leader to company commander, he has been deployed couple of times in Africa, and served within international commitments in former Yugoslavia, Lebanon and Mali.
Teacher at military courses at several times (NCOs, lieutenant and capitains’ course), Major de Bettignies is French staff college and Spanish war college graduated.
Currently based in Versailles, he is programm directory for light infantry weapons, rockets and dismounted CIS.
MAJ de Bettignies is married with 4 children (3 boys, and finally one girl) and a rubgy fan, but exclusively in case of French victory over the British team.

Miss Agnes Wamagui

Working as a Knowledge Transfer Manager, Agnes is part of the Complex Systems team in KTN, focusing on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Her main focus is to help companies identify how they could use robots to improve their business processes and increase the awareness of digital technologies. Where innovation is required, Agnes supports by providing valuable connections, expertise, funding and investment opportunities.

With a background in Computer Science, programming and working with robots (for example, humanoid robot (NAO)), Agnes uses her applied knowledge of robotics in the robotics and AI industry. She has helped to develop the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Landscape map, which serves as a platform for Robotics and AI organisations to be featured and to showcase their technologies, projects and test facilities, whilst offering the possibility to collaborate and interact with other organisations.

Mr Anders Palm

Born in Stockholm 1964
Graduated 1984 Certified upper secondary school engineer, computer systems.
Enlisted 1984, Conscript 2nd Lt 1985, 2nd Btn Lappland Brigade I 20, Umeå.
Officer’s academy 1985-1987.
2Lt 1987
Karlberg Military Academy 1st Lt 1989-1990
Company Commanders School 1992-1993 Captain.
CO Infcoy 1993-1994
Instructors course Mortar/Forward Observer
UNPROFOR 1995, TUZLA
Instructors course FO vehicle 90
1997 Lifeguards Brigade, I 1, Stockholm
Forward Observer trainer, Mortar Platoon commander.
2004-2010 Development Officer Lifeguards Regiment.(UAS/UGV, Future soldier program, Unattended Grouns sensors etc.)

2010-present FMV, Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, Optronics section.
Member of NATO Land Command Group Dismounted Soldier Systems Weapons & Sensor Group
Married since 1991, 4 children.

Mr Andrew Murdoch

Andrew Murdoch has been with Glenair since 2018 working as the Business Development Manager and Subject Matter Expert on the STAR-PAN product line. Initially based in the UK, Andrew relocated to the United States in 2020 where his STAR-PAN and Interconnect responsibilities cover USA, Brazil, Canada, Australia, New Zealand , Asia and Israel. Prior to this position, Andrew served 15 years as a Royal Marines Commando and a member within a specialist military unit with multiple tours of Iraq, Afghanistan and other Global operational theatres under his belt. As a communications specialist and qualified JTAC, Andrew spent his final years of military employment developing and testing soldier worn situational awareness and DACAS systems.

Mr Cezary Szydlik

Cezary Szydlik is Project Coordinator in Land Combat Missiles, Electro-Optics and GPS Support Section.
He graduated from Military Academy of Technology in Warsaw and he granted the degree of Master of Science and Engineer of Electromechanics. After 20 years of service in Polish Land Forces, he joined NATO Supply & Procurement Agency (former NAMSA) in 2012 responsible for anti-tank systems support, since 2017, he is ATGM project coordinator in Land Combat Missiles & Electro Optics Air and Land Combat Systems Programme Office.
He has 30 years of experience providing and managing in-service support for military combat systems including missiles, artillery and armoured vehicles.

Mr Charlie Bellsham

Mr Ciaran McCloskey

Mr Daan Ruhe

Daan is the LTAC Product Specialist within Inmarsat’s Global Government Business Unit, a division that was created to focus specifically on the explicit requirements of government users across military, public safety, border protection and emergency services.

Inmarsat is a global leader in mobile satellite communication and has been serving governments around the world since it was originally founded by the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1979 to ensure the safety of life at sea. The Global Government Business Unit is specifically tasked with delivering communication certainty to government across air, land and sea. If you need global mobile communications that must work, Inmarsat is the only solution that does so. Every time.

Daan is responsible for managing Inmarsat’s L-TAC service. L-TAC, when coupled with the Spectra SlingShot applique and a small antenna, is a unique, lightweight, low-power satcom system that enables existing, in-service tactical military and commercial VHF/UHF radios to utilize Inmarsat’s global L-band GEO satellite coverage, effectively providing a radio repeater in space, allowing these radios to be used beyond line of sight, globally.

Daan joined Inmarsat in 2015 having worked previously as a Solution Architect with Verizon Enterprise Solutions. Daan brings over 20 years of experience in telecommunications to the role and is a believer in true collaboration between government and industry to help build real solutions to real end user challenges. As such you are far more likely to find him out in the field, talking to operation teams about communications challenges and requirements, demonstrating capability and helping to find efficient solutions that help build situational awareness and deliver operational success.

Mr David Dalby

Mr David Luxton

Mr. Luxton served as an infantry officer and senior official with the Canadian and British governments before leading the global build-out of successive defence and security companies, including Simunition, which he founded, a world leader in simulated munitions for close quarters combat training. He led the build-out of Allen-Vanguard, which became a world leader in Counter-IED solutions including jammers, and remained Chairman until Oct 2021. He is former Chairman and CEO of United Tactical Systems, Chicago, a world leader in non-lethal munitions. Today he leads KWESST Micro Systems Inc. which specializes in next-generation tactical systems for defence and publicly safety. KWESST is a publicly listed company on NASDAQ and the TSXV under the symbol “KWE”.

Mr Doron Levi

Mr Elias Lallo

Elias Lallo is a chemical engineer working in the field of safe energy storage solutions for defence applications. His recent work at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) has focused in researching and developing safe and robust lithium-ion battery solutions for use in military systems.

Mr Ethan Wise

Mr Frank Mouawad

Frank Mouawad is a Department of National Defense civilian currently employed as the project manager for the Integrated Soldier System Project (ISSP). Mr. Mouawad has over 15 years of experience in systems engineering and architecture, project management/leadership and development/integration of complex systems. Mr. Mouawad is well known for his innovative approaches and forward-thinking strategies. He developed new simulation system architectures which influenced future Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) projects and their associated training concepts. Mr. Mouawad’s creativity has led to his assignment on several stalled and high-risk projects that required his agile approach to successfully manage risk and progress into implementation. Always looking for new challenges, Mr. Mouawad worked within RCAF projects, with Canadian Army vehicles systems and currently soldier systems. His recent success with ISSP has fueled Continuous Capability Sustainment conversations within the Department.

Mr. Mouawad holds a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering with several certifications in project management. In his free time, he enjoys sailing, scuba diving and numerous outdoor sports. You’ll also find him dabbling in electronic design or driving his wife crazy by brewing his next beer.

Mr Germain Samson

Germain started to work for Safran ten years ago at the sensor level, providing resonating gyroscopes for various civilian and military applications. Then he moved towards the equipment level providing portable optronics products to British and Canadian military forces. He is now in charge of soldier system business development, from HMI interactions to the handling of power and data in dismounted combat.

Mr Grant Guy

Grant Guy served 15 years in 29 Commando Royal Artillery. Serving as a fire controller on multiple operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan and various exercises throughout the world with commando forces.
Joined Glenair in January 2020 as the UK business developer for STAR-PAN and MIL interconnect solutions.
 

Mr Hein Jager

Hein Jager (62) is a Polymer Chemist and worked at TNO in the areas of CBRN Defence and Textile Research. In 2007 he became a Research and Development Officer for the Netherlands Defence Materiel Organisation in Soesterberg. He is responsible for research and development projects on soldier protection and camouflage and the technical lead for the Helmet and VOSS programmes. He was the chairman of the NATO STANAG 2920 Ed 3. and STANAG 4296 revision committees. He is the chair of the International Personal Armour Committee organizing the bi-annual Personal Armour System Symposium (PASS).

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 Jon Russell

Jonathan is a Senior Principal Scientist within the Physical Sciences Group at Dstl, Porton Down, UK. He is technical lead for the Land Systems Programme Dismounted Protection Project, and Dstl’s Project Technical Authority for the Dismounted Solder Systems project.
He is an active member of the NATO Land Capability Group Dismounted Soldier System (LCGDSS) Combat Clothing Individual Equipment and Protection (CCIEP) group, member of the STANAG 2920 Team of Experts, chair of the Head Borne Systems Team of Experts, and chair of STANAG 2902 Test and Evaluation Criteria for Combat Helmets.
He is a subject matter expert in physical protection having joined Dstl in 2005, developing and analysing vulnerability and lethality concepts for UK land vehicles. He has spent the last 11 years working in the dismounted protection domain, researching, developing and supporting UK MOD procurement programmes, and technical lead for INVICTUS – the technical programme board for VIRTUS. Jonathan is also the Project Technical Authority for the Dismounted Soldier Systems Project, delivering an articulation of future dismounted soldier system capability that will enhance Ground Manoeuvre operational effectiveness. Focusing on the integration of technology from the broader S&T portfolio: lethality, protection, mobility, C4ISR and sustainability domains.

Mr Jonathan Svensson

Mr Jozsef Berenyi

Mr Michael T. McCarthy

Mr. Michael T. McCarthy is a Department of the Army Civilian currently serving as the Deputy Director of the Close Combat Lethality Task Force, one of five Secretary of Defense Cross Functional Teams. Prior to his current assignment, Mike served as the Chief of Future Operations and Requirements Integration. His prior included serving as the Plans Officer to the Commanding General of for the Army Futures Command Task Force and as the Deputy to the Commanding General of the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. From 2009 to 2016, Mr. McCarthy led the U.S. Army’s “Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications” project for assessing the military utility of mobile technologies across the Army. Mr. McCarthy served various command and staff positions in the United States, Germany, and Korea following his commission into the Field Artillery upon graduation from the Virginia Military Institute. Mr. McCarthy is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College receiving a Master of Arts in Operations, Tactics, and Training. He is a 2015 graduate of the Air War College, earning a Master of Arts in National Security Studies and Theory from The U.S. Air War College Grand Strategy curriculum. Mr. McCarthy is a 2016 graduate of the prestigious Defense Senior Leader Development Program.

Mr Nils Teschner

Currently working as a Technical Project Officer, Nils Teschner is the technical focal point of the Night Vision Capability programme in OCCAR-EA. In this role, he manages technical, ILS & ISS requirements, drafts statements of work, manages risks, and monitors contract execution.
Nils holds MSc degrees in both aerospace engineering and philosophy. From 2004 to 2014, he served in the German Army and left as a Captain. In previous positions, he worked in OCCAR-EA as the Technical Publication Manager for the Tiger helicopter programme and as In-Service Support Officer in the German Army Aviation branch.

Mr Olivier Grégoire

Olivier Grégoire joined Glenair in September 2022 as Business Developer for STAR-PAN and Tactical Interconnect Solutions to cover Northern Europe.
Previously, Olivier served 21 years within Belgian Defence of which 10 years as a SOF Operator. From communication specialist to JTAC, Olivier was deployed multiple times around the globe.
Olivier was also head of a Research and Development cell for SOF and Ground Liaison Officer within a F-16 Squadron.

Mr Ralph Petroff

Petroff is a serial entrepreneur who has spent his entire career commercializing transformative technologies. He has helped build three such start-ups into worldwide market leaders. Marathon makes Autonomous Robotic Training Systems, commercial autonomous ground robots used by militaries on 4 continents. The ARTS enable ‘Lethality Today’ and also ZIRM – Zero Infrastructure Range Modernization.
Petroff has testified a dozen times as an expert witness before Congress, and has been interviewed by The New York Times, Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, Politico, and others. He graduated (cum laude) from Stanford University, and is co-inventor on a patent for UWB in mobile phones. Petroff was born in Canada, raised in Saigon and Huntsville, Alabama. He is married to biotech entrepreneur Peggy Sammon and have 4 adult children, and 4 grandchildren.

Mr Ronen Gabbay

Ronen is an entrepreneur with extensive hands-on and managerial experience. He commenced his career as an officer in the defence establishment, working with advanced technologies.
Ronen was the founder of PPX group Ltd for more than 7 years. PPX Group Ltd. was an innovative software company specializing in developing Mobile and Web Location Based (LBS) Social Networking Services and Applications.
Later on, Ronen had served at various C level positions, working for international High-tech companies, and as the founder and co-founder of vibrant internet and robotics companies.
Ronen has an M.A from Bar Ilan University – International relations and affairs.
Since being a teen, Ronen enjoys surfing, travelling, off-road running and outdoor navigation.
Hobbies that became a way of life, and the catalyst for Ronen’s new entrepreneurship adventure.

Mr Tom Kinnaird

Tom Kinnaird is a Sales Manager within Instro Precision, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, which specialises in Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities.

Mr Tony White

Based at Ultra PCS for the last 21 years, Tony leads the Research & Development activities in the fields of power management, computer/network solutions and situational awareness for the Land Systems part of the business.
Covering Vehicles, Soldiers and Bases, Tony has worked on all of the UK Generic Architecture standards and more recently, has been exploring the next generation of wearable technology for the war fighter.
 

Mr Wilhelm Sahlén

Wilhelm Sahlén has been working as a research engineer at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) just over three years. Wilhelm has a background in mechanical engineering and takes roles like researcher and project manager. The projects are towards the Swedish armed forces to ensure a safe implementation of lithium batteries in military applications.

Ms Ilse Kroesen

Since mid-2018 Ms Ilse Kroesen has working at the Defence Organisation Materiel on projects regarding equipment of the soldier. With her Msc degree and background as an Industrial Design Engineer the position as an System Integration Manager for developing an Individual Soldier System was a good match. In this role Ilse's responsibilities were to develop, test and deliver a modular system for personal equipment regarding a vest-system, ballistic protection and backpacks. Within this modular system articles needed to be interfaced, but also with other systems, like C4I, CBRN, clothing and helmets.
Since mid-2021 Ilse's role as a System Integration Manager has been expanded in chairperson for the coordination board of the individual soldier. The main goal of this board is to coordinate the entire life time of the equipment within the cubic meters around the soldier and if needed giving advice in adapting new innovations. In these cubic meters different systems have interfaces with each other which has a huge effect on the capabilities and the performance of the soldier. Another important aspect is that the soldier has to operate in his own environment. For example, a soldier needs to sit safely and ready for action in a vehicle or in a Chinook. Ilse's communication skills assist in achieving the required coordination and synchronization between all actors.

Nick Taylor

Nick was appointed as the Head of Soldier, Training and Special Projects in the UK MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation in April 2018

Nick has had a diverse career within the MoD since joining them in 1992. From December 2008, he was the Head of the Land and Joint Training and Simulation Systems Programme (JBTSE) in DE&S, responsible for the procurement and support of the British Army’s collective training systems as well as armoured vehicle gunnery and crew training systems. In August 2013, he was promoted to the Senior Civil Service in the Army Recruiting and Training Division as the Director Programmes, responsible for all major projects. In 2016, He moved assignments back to DE&S as the Head of Function for Project Management, initially in the Air Domain, but latterly for the whole of DE&S.

As well as being a graduate of the UK Government’s Major Project Leadership Academy, Nick is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Chartered Project Professional with the Association for Project Management with 29 years’ experience of Project and Programme Management with the UK MoD.