General Sir Nick Carter is an accomplished strategic leader and advisor. He has over 45 years’ military experience culminating at the top of his profession as the Chief of the Defence Staff where he was the principal military advisor to the Prime Minister, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of State for Defence, and the Head of the UK Armed Forces. He also served as the Chief of the General Staff, professional Head of the British Army. He is an expert on Defence and Geopolitical Affairs, Transformational and Strategic Leadership, and Inclusivity.

Nick Carter has commanded military operations at every level of command and in a variety of different contexts, including the Troubles in Northern Ireland, UN peacekeeping in Cyprus, NATO peace enforcement in both Bosnia and Kosovo, and commanding the UK-led Brigade in Iraq in 2003-04. He has multiple years of experience in Afghanistan since 9/11, commanding 55,000 US and NATO troops in Helmand and Kandahar during President Obama’s surged in 2009-10, designing approaches to counter insurgency, and acting as the key facilitator to build confidence between the Afghan and Pakistani governments. He has commanded more American troops and marines than any other foreigner.

An accomplished military diplomat, he has developed several coalitions and military communities of interest including in the Middle East with the GCC, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt, in the Caribbean, and a Joint Expeditionary Force with the Nordics and Baltic States to counter Russian belligerence. He also sought to develop a relationship with his Chinese opposite number, the Chief of CMC Joint Staff Department Li Zoucheng.

A moderniser and reformer, Nick Carter is a leader who shapes events rather than be shaped by them, using data, strategic acumen, and operational insight and experience to create and sell a compelling vision of the future challenge, aligning teams behind a creative concept for why and how an institution must transform at pace.

His hallmarks are the Defence element of the 2020 Integrated Review, leading to the largest uplift in Defence spending since the end of the Cold War; the fundamental restructuring of the British Army (known as Army 2020) following the national Defence Reviews of 2010 and 2015; and the design of the Armed Forces’ support to the national COVID-19 response.

Nick Carter initiated and drove significant cultural change, instituting a strategic culture, a programme of empowerment and Maximizing Talent. A strong advocate for equality of opportunity, enabling everyone to maximise their talent, he was recognised by Business in the Community naming him UK Gender Champion in 2017 after making and winning the case for legislation to be changed to open all roles in the military to all people based on ability and potential rather than outdated notions of gender.

Nick Carter is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California.

This talk will be raising funds for Supporting Wounded Veterans.