Adrian Bradshaw Keynote Speaker

General Sir Adrian Bradshaw KCB OBE DL is one of Britain’s most senior military commanders and a leading NATO strategist. As Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe (2014–2017), he served as Britain’s most senior officer in NATO, shaping collective defence at a time of renewed tension with Russia and accelerating global risk.

Commissioned into the British Army in 1980, Adrian served worldwide in armour, as a helicopter pilot and in other specialist roles, commanding troops on operations at nearly every rank up to General. His extensive operational record spans Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan. He has commanded an Armoured Battlegroup, an Armoured Brigade and Division, UK Land Forces, and served as Deputy Commander of NATO’s 140,000-strong force in Afghanistan. In recent years he has also flown as a fixed-wing pilot in the RAF Reserve in the rank of Flying Officer.

Adrian holds degrees in Agriculture, Defence Studies and International Relations. He was Visiting Defence Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford (2011), is Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, and Visiting Professor at King’s College London, where he lectures on Defence Strategy. Currently Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, he is Honorary Colonel of the Artist’s Rifles and recently handed over as Chairman of BLESMA, the UK charity for limbless ex-Service members.

A trusted chair of high-level private conferences with Heads of State and Government abroad on counter-extremism, Adrian also leads strategy sessions for companies and speaks regularly to business and institutional audiences through Chartwell. Known for an engaging, unscripted style—without slides or scripts—he blends frontline leadership lessons with clear frameworks for resilience, risk and results. His widely viewed TED talk, “Ambitious to Achieve? – then understand strategy,” underpins his practical approach to building holistic strategy.