About Your Speakers
Soldier Technology 2009
Brig Carew Wilks was educated at Malvern College and read Engineering Science at Oxford University. He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1978 and served initially in Germany, UK and the Falkland Islands. He attended post graduate professional engineer training in electrical and mechanical engineering at the Royal School of Military Engineering, including a construction industry secondment in Australia.
He deployed to the first Gulf War in 1990 with a specialist engineering team, following which he served in Berlin as the Area Mechanical and Electrical Engineer. He attended the Army Staff College at Camberley in 1993 before taking command of 5 Field Squadron, a mechanised engineer squadron supporting 1 Mech Bde. He led the Squadron on two 6 month operational tours to Bosnia during the civil war as part of UNPROFOR then subsequently with NATO.
In 1996 he moved into the MOD Procurement Executive as a project manager for field electrical power supplies. He left to command 529 Specialist Team Royal Engineers (Air Support) during the Kosovo air campaign, responsible for infrastructure at deployed RAF operating bases in the Middle East and Mediterranean theatres. On promotion to Lt Col, he moved to the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham as a lecturer in Counter Mobility, Infrastructure and Fortifications.
From 2000 he commanded 25 Engineer Regiment in Northern Ireland. As both CO and Commander Royal Engineers NI, he led all military engineer operations across the Province. On promotion to Colonel in 2002 he took command of the Integrated Project Team for Specialist and Utility Vehicles, responsible for the acquisition of a wide range of light vehicles for defence, bringing into service Viking, Minacity, Pinzgauer and other light vehicles, and leading the change to a through life IPT. Promoted to Brigadier in 2004 he moved to HQ Land as Director, Army Infrastructure Organization. His responsibilities covered capital projects and facilities management for the whole Army estate worldwide.
He joined MNF-I CJ3 as Director Energy Operations for Gen Petraeus in Nov 07, responsible for the security operations, reconstruction and development of Iraq’s oil and electricity sectors through to Aug 08. He moved to DE&S as Individual Capability Group Leader in Oct 08, responsible for soldier modernisation and for procurement of light weapons and surveillance, target acquisition and night optic equipment.
Brig Wilks is married to Janey and they have two sons, Mikey and Eddie. He is a keen dinghy sailor, hill walker and country sportsman, and Chairman of Defence Deer Management. He previously represented England at target rifle shooting.
Born in Vancouver BC, LTC Bodner joined the Canadian Forces in 1977. He has served in all three infantry battalions of the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) in various locations as well as at the RCR Battle School in Petawawa Ontario. He has commanded on operations in Croatia, has served two tours with NATO forces in Germany and was the Infantry Equipment Trials Officer at the Canadian Army Combat Training Centre for 3 years. A graduate of the Royal Military College Kingston, Command and Staff College Toronto and the one-year Long Armour-Infantry Course in the United Kingdom. LTC Bodner is currently Chairman of NATO Land Capability Group 1 Dismounted Soldier.
Born 1954 in Esslingen, Germany 1976 study of mechanical engineering with graduation in applied optics at Stuttgart University, Germany 1984 scientist at Insitute for Applied Optics ITO, Stuttgart University and promotion 1990 technical officer for optronics and lasers at Bundesamt fuer Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung, Koblenz, Germany 2000 head of optronic sensors section including semiconductor material research for electronic warfare and radar 2004 team leader and PM of project 'Infanterist der Zukunft IdZ' and research board for personal soldier equipment
Since 1982, I have been working for DGA, in Bourges (ETBS) and for the past 3 years have been in Paris as expert in management on UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle). My work since 1997 has contributed to the FELIN programme, including:
2006 up to now | Air-land combat technical expertise center for FELIN, as |
2003 - 2006 | Weapons System Directorate (SPNuM) Expert in management program (UAV as SIDM) Functional analysis in a lot of domains : UAV, Nuclear detection,
|
1997 - 2003 | Weapons System Directorate (SPART) : Artillery Expert in management program (as FELIN) Functional analysis in a lot of domains : mine vehicle and FELIN Cost and effectiveness evaluation
|
Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Levesque is the Project Manager for the Integrated Soldier System Project (ISSP) within the Directorate of Soldier Systems Program Management, which is part of the Materiel Group of the Canadian Department of National Defence. An Infantryman with 33 years Army experience, he has served in a variety of command and staff appointments in Canada and in Europe, with NATO and the United Nations, as a senior Staff Officer in Germany and Deputy Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion of the Royal 22e Régiment (Vandoos) in Germany, Bosnia and Croatia.
Posted to Army Headquarters in the Director of Land Requirements in the Summer of 2008 and appointed as the Project Director of Integrated Soldier System Project (ISSP), Major Bruno Turmel was previously employed at the Canadian Infantry School as Staff officer for a period of three years. He graduated from the Université Laval with a Bachelors Degree in Specialised Geography Physics. He is also a graduate of the Canadian Land Force Technical Staff Programme (LFTSP) course at the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario. He has spent twelve years in operational units and has deployed with the Royal 22ème Régiment (The Vandoos) in Bosnia, Haiti and Afghanistan (2004). In Afghanistan, he was employed in the Tactical Operations Center as the officer in charge of the Battle Group current operations.
• Head of Soldier Systems (2007 - 2009) Responsiblity for all SMP topics at EADS (Warrior21, IMESS (CH), COMFUT (ES) )
• Business Development(2006) for Force Protection
• Chief Engineer Homeland security (2002 -2006) responsible for LSI projects modernization Federal Police and Border Control (Brazil, Romania)
• Head of Army Studies 1997 - 2002: Studies and simulation models for Infantry, Engineers, Artillery, C3I
Philippe Schmid is working on the IMESS programme since June 2006. At that time he was hired as a consultant to coordinate the work between military and technical requirements and to structure the evaluation of the more than 600 requirements grouped into 150 criteria. Beginning of 2008 he was hired by armasuisse, the Swiss Procurement Agency, to manage the IMESS programme.
IMESS is a joint effort between the Swiss Armed Forces and the armasuisse. Though armasuisse has the lead during the evaluation and acquisition phases, the integrated project team has members from the planning staff (PST A), the land forces (Heer), the logistics organisation (LBA), the command support organisation (FUB) and of course armasuisse. Dr. Philippe Schmid is the executive managing the day-to-day business of the IMESS programme. He is responsible for the total management of this programme involving, at different degrees, more than 30 people from armasuisse and the Swiss Armed Forces.
Rune is Project Manager NORMANS R&D and Chairman LCG/1 C4I & Architecture where he currently is managing 15 people. Current projects and initiatives include a new NORMANS R&D phase started up in February this year and will last for a 2 year and 6 months. Major achievements have included Soldier C4I developments and on going projects increasing ballistic protection without increasing weight, and increased CBRN protection with reduced weight.
Major Matti Honkela graduated from Finnish Military Academy 1987. He has been working on different development programs and procurement projects since 1996, when he started as a test officer in FDF Armoured Brigade Trials and Development Division. He was transferred to FDFHQ 1999. The programs he has been involved in are:
- Medium Range AT Programme
- XA-203 development Programme
- CV9030 Programme
- MBT modernization Programme (LEO2A4)
- Image Intensifier 2000 Programme
- Short Range AT Programme
Now he is working in Army Command Armaments Division and he’s main programs are Soldier modernization program and NH90 helicopter.
Major Bossi has been heading up integrated head mounted display project with particularly interesting results. Head mounted displays are now the corner stone of the majority of developing soldier modernisation prorammes and their ability to enhance operational effectiveness is well documented. The ability to enhance night vision capabilities however is a little less well known. Don’t miss this essential presentation where you will hear from one of the worlds’ most respected military research agencies, SIREQ.
Marieke is currently heading up a TNO project looking at enhancing night vision capabilities across The Netherlands Army. This project has been analysing the most innovative night vision equipment and products as well as the needs of soldiers when wishing to create the ultimate night vision capability.
Erich Weissenböck is an Austrian Armed Forces Officer with the rank of a Colonel and a master’s degree in political science. He is currently working at the European Defence Agency in Brussels. There, he is appointed as a Project Officer in the Capabilities Directorate with responsibilities for capability development in Precision Engagement. In this area, he has to deal with projects in 21st Century Soldier Systems, Armoured Systems, Non lethal capabilities and Personnel Recovery.
Erich Weissenböck has 25 years soldiers experience from different positions in mechanized infantry brigades - latest national appointment as a chief of staff in 3rd mechinfBde, from several multinational operations with UN and NATO as well as in European Military Capability Planning.
Colonel (Retired) Cohen Rachamim graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Ben Gurion University and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Manchester University (extension in Israel) with 30 years experience in the Defense Area. Rachamim joined the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in 1978 into the paratroopers units. His principal area of expertise is Infantry, urban fighting and special forces. In 1993 he posted to command the regular paratrooper Battalion and in 1998 the Infantry Brigade.
Maj Preston (on the right) commissioned into the 9/12 Royal Lancers in 1998 post formal Army Officer training at Sandhurst Military Academy. Operational tours followed in Banja Luka, Bosnia, and latterly Londonderry, Northern Ireland with 8 Infantry Brigade. In 2003 he moved to the training world as SO3 Training, where his responsibilities included working up Operational and Advisory Training Groups prior to deployment in either Northern Ireland or Afghanistan. By 2005 he was promoted Major and back on the front-line, commencing the first of his ‘air-oriented’ tours of duty as the Ground Liaison Officer with 1(F) Sqn at Cottesmore, including in that time 2 deployments to Kandahar. Maj Preston completed his Intermediate Staff College in 2007 prior to taking up his current post as SO2 Land at the Air Warfare Centre UAV Battlelab, where his roles include liaison between Army and RAF UAV operators, Trials Management and operational Land ISTAR SME advice to RAF Air-Land Integration initiatives. He has just completed the Air Battlespace Training Course and is currently the RAF Project Manager for Air-Land Integration and mini-UAV Trials.
Richard Kemp recently left the Army after almost 30 years as an Infantry officer. For most of his last five year’s of service he was attached to the Cabinet Office, where he worked for the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) heading a team responsible for international terrorism, Iraq and Northern Ireland. Throughout this period he was also a member of the government crisis management committee, COBR, and Chairman of the multi-agency intelligence group responsible for coordination and assessment of intelligence for COBR, including during the July 2005 London bombings and their aftermath; numerous other terrorist attacks affecting British interests globally; and several high profile kidnappings of UK citizens. Having first entered Iraq with the US 3rd Army in 1991 as a member of Brigadier Patrick Cordingley’s tank crew, he has made numerous fact-finding trips to the country since the 2003 invasion, and spent 4 months in 2005 in Baghdad and northern Iraq working on intelligence and counter terrorism directly for Ambassador Negroponte. He was Commander British Forces in Afghanistan in 2003, at the same time acting as defence adviser to the British Ambassador and counter terrorism adviser to the German Commander of the International Security and Assistance Force. During this period he set up and ran a ground-breaking joint US/UK intelligence operation against Al Qaida-linked terrorists in Kabul, and devised what is now the British military’s global policy for dealing with suicide bombers. From 2001 – 2002 he was internal security and counter terrorism adviser to the Macedonian government. In 2000 he formed and then commanded the Army’s Operational Training and Advisory Group, responsible for training UK forces for specific operational deployments around the world. Prior to that he commanded The 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment on a two year operational tour in Northern Ireland. His earlier career included command of troops on operations in the Middle East and the Balkans and several tours in Belfast and South Armagh. He was awarded the MBE for intelligence work in Northern Ireland in 1993, the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery in Bosnia in 1994, and the CBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours in recognition of his work for the JIC and COBR. He now runs a security operation in London.
COL (R) Richard Hansen, recently retired as Project Manager Soldioer Warrior from PEO SOldier offers a candid assessment and perspective of the "Big A" Acquisition process (Requirements, Resourcing, Technology, and Materiel Development) through the eyes (...and Helmet Mounted Display) of Land Warrior and other similar Military Soldier Systems that support the Air, Ground, and Mounted Warfighter. His presentation will glance at 60 years of Soldier systems with the intent to forecast furture requirements and the evolutionary acquisition/procurements of capabilites to meet the Warfighters' needs.
Mark is currently the Program Manager for the Marine Expeditionary Riffle e Squad Program. Retired from the Marine Corps, he continues to work on the integration and modernization of the Marine Riffle e Squad focusing on the squad as the system and the Marine as the war fighter. The Marine Corps continues to rapidly equip the squad with new capabilities in the current conflict but must integrate these capabilities for the future.
Cynthia has worked for the Dutch MOD since February 2007 as the first technician in the project VOSS. She has a master degree (MSc) in Industrial Design and a Bachelor degree (BEng) in Mechanical Engineering.
Born in Sydney and educated at St Ignatius College Riverview, he entered the Royal Military College Duntroon in 1984. On graduating in 1988 he was commissioned into the 5th/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, where he held appointments as a rifle and reconnaissance platoon commander. After a brief posting as an instructor at the Australian School of Infantry, he was posted on promotion as adjutant, the 41st Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment.
In 1994 he returned to the Royal Military College as an instructor in field training and tactics. In 1996 he was promoted to major and selected to become part of Land 125-Project Wundurra, Australia’s Soldier Modernisation Programme. This involved attachments to the equivalent US, French and British programmes and the completing the Army’s Technical Staff Officer Course. In 1999, keen on pursuing an interest in non conventional threats to security, he undertook a post graduate studies at the London School of Economics.
In 2000 he was posted to Australian Command and Staff College, Fort Queenscliff and at this point opted for a transfer to the Reserve and employment in the private sector. Working as a project/programme manager for an international management consultancy he managed projects across a variety of industry sectors in Australia, United Kingdom and Germany. In 2003 he joined a major US information security company and whilst a member of the Reserve, held squadron command and Regimental 2IC appointments in 4th /19th Prince of Wales Light Horse Regiment.
He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel after completing Australian Command and Staff College in 2004 and in 2005 took up a regular appointment as the Chief of Staff of the Joint Task Force responsible for providing security to the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He then deployed to the Middle East and was one of a number of Australian officers embedded into HQ Multi-National Division South Eastern Iraq as the Deputy J9, Chief of Civil Military Operations. On returning to Australia he undertook language training at the Australian Defence Force School of Languages and deployed to Timor-Leste as the Commanding Officer of the Australian Defence Co-operation Programme-Timor-Leste.
Lieutenant Colonel Heath holds masters degrees in Management (Information Systems) and Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of New South Wales, a Masters of Science (econ) from the London School of Economics and is currently completing a Masters of Law (Juris Doctor) at Monash University. He has been the Project Director Land 125-Soldier Modernisation, since January 2008.
Lt Col Tshepo Prince Seokamo joined the South African National Defence Force in 1986. He served in many posts within the Defence Force and took part in various operations. Among those posts that he served in, he was appointed as SO1 Administrative, Operating and Technical officer responsible for updating Army doctrines. He was later on, in 2003 appointed as the Project Officer for Project WARRIOR, which addresses soldier modernization within the South African National Defence Force. The post he is still holding.
Nico Ras was born and raised in Namibia. He started his career with the South African Transport Services in 1974 as an apprentice to study electrical engineering. He was transferred to South Africa in 1977. In 1987 he left the South African Transport Services after being appointed at the Armaments Corporation of South Africa as a Project Manager. He has been involved in different acquisition and operational projects and was appointed as African Warrior Programme Manager in 2001.
• Former technical officer in the former Swedish coastal artillery.
• Engineer with a Master in gun system technology from two Swedish military academies.
• Chief Engineer and Product Manager of Small Arms and Light Support Weapons at FMV (part of the Swedish MoD) since 1994.
• Chairman of the NATO Army Armaments Group LCG/1 Weapons & Sensors Subgroup since 2007.
• Team leader in the NATO RTO study on future small arms technical interfaces team since 2006.
Service:
- 1984: Platoon Leader Tank Platoon
- 1985: 2 iC Tank Squadron
- 1987: S3 Armoured Battalion
- 1988: CO Tank Squadron
- 1989: Teacher (Tactics) Military Academy
- 1991: Teacher (Tactics/Operations) Military Staff College
- 1994: Staff Officer at Chief of Defence Office
- 1996: G3 Danish Reaction Brigade
- 1997: CO Mechanised Infantry Battalion/Danish Life Regiment
- 1998: CO Danish Battle Group in Bosnia (IFOR/NATO)
- 1999: Head of Tactics Division Military Academy
- 2002: Chief Joint Ops Sec/G3/HQ AFNORTH/NATO
- 2004: CO 1st Mechanised Infantry Brigade.
- 2005: CO Danish Army Combat Ce ntre.
- 2007:COS/Danish Division
- 2008:CO Danish Army Combat Centre
Head of Future Combat Systems at Cranfield Defence and Security at Shrivenham. Responsible for research in vehicle technology, systems engineering and infantry systems lethality. Lecturing responsibilities include leadership of weapon assessment, battlespace technology management, combat modelling and wargaming and management science courses and inputs to many other courses including defence acquisition and systems engineering.
Graduated with an MA (Hons) in Physics from Exeter College, Oxford University. Previously worked for BAE Systems companies including Royal Ordnance Future Systems Group where he was responsible for team of operational analysts involved in assessments of weapon systems including artillery, armoured fighting vehicles and infantry systems.
- Soldier since 01.04.1973 (Armd Inf)
- Until 1976 squad & Platoon leader
- 1976 – 1980 study electronic engineer
- 1980 – 1988 coy cdr Armd Inf coy, inf coy, mortar coy, heavy mortar coy
- 1988 – 1992 German Infantry School – course leader marksmanship, mortar courses
- 1992 – 1994 coy cdr staff coy
- 1994 – today member Future Development Section (Inf)
- 1994 – 1998 Anti-Tank-Weapons (TRIGAT)
- 1998 – 2010 Soldier Modernisation Programme
• Master of Science in physics from the Technical University of Norway, Trondheim, 1975
• Scientist at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) since 1976
o 1976-80: Worked on various anti-tank studies
o 1980-1994: Pattern recognition / Image analysis aimed at detection, classification and tracking of objects in images and image sequences
o 1995-2004: Project manager for projects on anti-tank warfare
o 2005- : Project manager for project on combat vehicle technologies related to protection, mobility, firepower and Battlefield Management Systems (BMS)
• 1983-1984: Visiting scientist at Virginia Tech, working on Image reconstruction by maximum entropy methods
• 1988-1995: Teaching Pattern recognition / Image processing at UNIK (branch of the University of Oslo)
• Over the years member of various WEAG, NATO and national working groups on Image processing, Combat vehicles and Alternatives to anti-personnel mines (APM).
Nagy Sorial was born in Egypt, on 30 March 1965. After completing his secondary education at Marist Brothers Kogarah in Sydney, he entered Sydney University. Concurrent with the completion of his Bachelor of Science and Postgraduate Diploma of Education, he graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1985 from the Officer Cadet Training Unit of 2 Training Group into the Royal Australian Infantry Corps, and held command appointments in the 4th and then 4th/3rd Battalions of the Royal New South Wales Regiment. In 1988 he provided Full Time Service as the Staff Officer Grade Three Personnel on the Headquarters of the 2nd Division and was also shadow posted as the Second in Command of Headquarters Company of 1st Logistic Support Group.
In 1989 he transferred to the Australian Regular Army and held command appointments as a Platoon Commander and Regimental Signals Officer in the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. In 1993 he was posted as the Officer Instructor Signals in the Specialist Wing of the School of Infantry.
In 1995 he concurrently completed the Army Technical Staff Officer Course and a Masters in Management Studies (Project Management). In 1996, he was posted (against his will) as the Staff Officer Grade Three Systems Design Analyst on the Army Central Manpower Information System project, an enlightening Infantry posting.
In 1997 he was promoted to Major and posted as the Staff Officer Grade Two Materiel within the Directorate of Infantry. In September 1997 he assumed command of D Company (ARA), 25th/ 49th Battalion of the Royal Queensland Regiment. This included a deployment to Butterworth in Malaysia, the user trial Company for Project Bushranger, and a four month attachment for the Company as B Company 6RAR for the Restructure of The Army trials and exercises during 1998.
In 1999 he was the first Australian to attend the Mubarak Al-Abdullah Joint Command and Staff College in Kuwait. This is an entirely joint military college where students must complete all three Services’ academic assessments. It proved to be a fascinating and educational military experience that also allowed him to widen his Arabic speaking skills and knowledge of the Middle East. He concurrently completed a Masters of Science through the University of Kuwait. He graduated as the Student of Merit, the first time this had been awarded to a foreign student attending the course.
On return to Australia, he was posted as the Senior Instructor Field Training at the Royal Military College. An organisational change, based on a curriculum rewrite he led during his first year within the college, saw him posted as the Senior Instructor 1st Class. In 2002 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed as the Deputy Director Soldier Combat Systems within Capability Systems of Defence HQ. He was responsible for the development of the close combat and Special Forces capabilities. He was awarded a Chief of Army Commendation for his work in this area and he was also awarded a NATO Official Commendation for his work as the head of the Systems Architecture Sub-group of the NATO Future Soldier Systems Group.
In 2004 he was appointed as the Commanding Officer of The Pilbara Regiment. He commanded the Regiment for three years in order to meet the Land Commander’s intent to change the existing culture and focus of the unit to align with operational and training requirements. He then deployed to the Middle East in September 2006 and was embedded into the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq. He was the Deputy J3, Chief of Operations, based in Baghdad. He was awarded the US Bronze Star Medal for his work, including establishing the Corps-level headquarters responsible for the battle of Baghdad; the Baghdad Operations Centre.
On return to Australia in mid 2007 he became a member of the Directing Staff of the Australian Command and Staff College. In 2008 he was promoted to Colonel and appointed to the Defence Materiel Organisation as the Director of the Soldier Modernisation Systems Program Office (SPO). The SPO is the busiest in Land Systems Division, currently responsible for six Major projects worth over $1bn, eight Minor projects worth over $120m and an annual sustainment and operations budget of some $150m.
Nagy is married to Margaret (an AAAVN officer currently commanding 108th Signal Squadron), and they have one daughter (1998) and three sons (1997, 2000, 2001). He enjoys running with his dog, playing masters’ rugby but particularly spending time watching his children participate in numerous sports and his wife garden.
Colonel Crispian Beattie was commissioned in February 1974, into the 3rd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets (3 RGJ). His early career included service in the Far East, N.Ireland, Gibraltar Cyprus, Germany, Canada and Great Britain in the light and mechanized infantry roles.
His Staff tasks have included designing the Commissioning Course at RMA Sandhurst; leading the technical intelligence output of the British Commanders-in-Chiefs’ Mission to Soviet Western Group of Forces; a tour in the Army Pentagon on the Digitization (FD) Staff of the Offices of the Deputy Chiefs of Staff for Operations and for Programs; and in DG Development and Doctrine, where he was the lead author of the UK’s Future Land Operational Concept (FLOC) 2003.
He was Commander British Forces, Bosnia and DCOM Multinational Task Force (NW) in 2004, prior to assuming the post of Commander, Command and Control Development Centre (C2DC) in the Land Warfare Centre (LWC). He is a history graduate of the University of Cambridge.
Frank E. Schneider (* 1967) is a scientific employee at the Research Establishment for Applied Sciences. This research facility, which is funded by the German MoD, has embodied excellence in applied research in the field of military technology for about now 50 years. He is program manager for the German Federal Armed Forces R&D level 1 program “Unmanned Systems”. Current program topics include “Experimental UGV for CBRNE threats” and “UGV for RSTA in close range”.
Lt Col. (Retired) Ehud Levy, graduated in Electronic Engineering (Bsc.) and Management (MBA). With 30 years of technical and operational experience in the field of military defense systems. Ehud's Principal experience is in technical program management and system integration of intelligence gathering and exploitation systems.
Ehud Levy joined ELTA Systems Ltd. in 2002. Since then he has been involved in development and implementation of situation awareness systems for the combat group, with focus on Unattended Ground Sensors Network (UGSN).
Gil Tidhar has 18 years of experience in IRST systems development and optical system development. He served as EO programs leader at the Israeli Air-Force, initiated and lead the PAWS-II MWS program at Elisra Electronic Systems, worked on optical communication solutions at Chiaro Networks and served as VP of R and D at TopSpin Medical. He is now the CTO of Optigo Systems where he leads the development of gun shot detection (GDM) and Situation Awareness systems for dismounted soldiers and ground vehicles.
Dr Ahlberg heads the department of Sensor Informatics at FOI, the Swedish Defence Research Agency, and focuses on signal processing (detection, navigation, mapping, tracking, presentation) from various sensors (radar, IR, laser, multi/hyperspectral) where night vision is one of the relevant capabilities. His background is research on target tracking & recognition and multi/hyperspectral image processing.
David is responsible for providing advice and guidance on batteries and related items to the UK MoD. He provides specific power and battery advice to the Dismounted Close Combat IPT which hosts the FIST programme and is responsible for funding the evaluation of numerous batteries and related items to the full range of known and envisaged military requirements. David is also involved in pioneering research on Lithium Cells and this involves collaboration with other leading soldier modernisation nations including Germany France and the US.
Darren Browning completed his first degree, in Chemistry with Biology, at Southampton University in 1992. He stayed on to obtain a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry, investigating zeolites for selective catalysis. Upon leaving university in 1995 he joined what was then DRA at Holton Heath investigating hydrogen storage materials for fuel cells. He remained with DRA during its transition to DERA and finally QinetiQ and during an interesting period of 9 years was involved in many aspects of energy storage including batteries, fuel cells and energy harvesting for a wide range of military and commercial applications. Darren moved back into the civil service 3 years ago and joined Dstl where he continues to provide advice to the MoD on a range of power source options.
Dr. Carsten Cremers, a German National, was born and grew up in Krefeld, Germany. He received his Diploma in Chemistry from the University of Düsseldorf, where he also did his PhD thesis in Theoretical Chemistry working on laser spectroscopy. Subsequently he became a post-doc at the French National Synchrotron Laboratory LURE in Orsay, France were he worked on deep etch X-Ray lithography for MEMS applications. Afterwards, he joined the group of Ulrich Stimming at the Technische Universität München working on micros-structured reformers, direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). After four years he changed to the Bavarian Centre for Applied Energy Research, also directed by Prof. Stimming, as group manager fuel cells, continuing his work on DMFC and SOFC. In 2006 he changed to the Fraunhofer-Institut für chemische Technologie. Here he works as project manager in the field of direct alcohol fuel cells and fuel cells for military applications. He currently is a member of the British-German committee for the standardization of military fuel cells and a member of the CapTech network of the European Defence Agency.
Mal Craghill was born in Holyhead in 1968 and educated at St. George’s School, Harpenden, and Ulverston Victoria High School. He was commissioned in July 1987 and completed navigator training on the Tornado GR1 in 1989. Mal served in Germany from 1990 to 1994, completing operational tours on Op GRANBY and Op JURAL and qualifying as an Electronic Warfare Instructor. From 1994 until 2000 Mal served at RAF Lossiemouth, as Wing Weapons Officer, and then returning to flying duties completed an operational tour in the maritime role. During this period Mal was deployed on operations in the Gulf a further 5 times. Mal was then selected for Qualified Weapons Instructor training in 1998, which was followed by an instructional tour on the Tornado Operational Conversion Unit. An exchange tour with the USAF followed, flying the F15E until 2003 when Mal took up post as OC Weapons Training at the Air Warfare Centre, RAF Cranwell. Another Lossiemouth tour followed, with Mal completing his Flight Commander tour as OC Weapons Flight on the Tornado Operational Conversion Unit. Promotion to Wing Commander in July 2007 was immediately followed by staff college at Shrivenham, on completion of which Mal took command of the Air Warfare Centre UAV Test and Evaluation Squadron at RAF Waddington.
Juan Vilatela obtained an Engineering Physics bachelor’s degree in Mexico in 2004. Initially, his research focused on nanotechnology and inorganic composites, including a research internship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in New York to study synthesis and applications of nanomaterials. Later he worked in the packaging and food industry developing plastic and metal containers with improved mechanical properties and gas permeability. In 2005 he started a PhD under Prof. Alan Windle at the University of Cambridge. For the last few years he has worked on the production of high-performance carbon nanotube fibres and composites, studying their mechanical, electrical and thermal properties.
Brigadier-General Alain Tremblay enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1977 and graduated from the Royal Military College, St-Jean, five years later.
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; with the Headquarters 5e Groupe Brigade du Canada in Valcartier; with 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. Promoted to colonel in June 2001, he assumed the direction of the Canadian Forces Recruitment Group in July 2001. In 2005, BGen Tremblay was chosen to attend the NSSC at the Forces College in Toronto. He was then selected to be part of the CF Transformation Team. In January 2006, he was appointed as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Privy Council Office.
Brigadier-General Tremblay is the Chief of Staff Land Strategy since July 2006.
He was promoted to his current rank in March 2007.