Nick Carter Keynote Speaker

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, Secretary of State for Defence and the National Security Council, 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 speaker on Defence and Geopolitical Affairs, Transformational and Strategic Leadership and Inclusivity.

Nick Carter has commanded on 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 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 until the present day, designing approaches to counter insurgency and acting as the facilitator to build confidence between the Afghan and Pakistani governments.

A moderniser and reformer, General Nick 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 the institution must transform at pace. His hallmarks are the Defence element of the most recent Integrated Review, 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.

He 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 Gender Champion in 2017 after making and winning the case for legislation to be changed to open up all roles in the military to all people based on ability and potential rather than outdated notions of gender.

Nick has been a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University from Autumn 2022.