Richard Nugee – Keynote Speaker

General Richard Nugee was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1986, after reading Anthropology at Durham University. He served with a number of Gunner Regiments between 1986 and 2005, deploying to Northern Ireland (completing 4 tours in the infantry role), Bosnia and Kosovo, Iraq in 2003 responsible for all territory south of Basra and then Cyprus with the UN.

In 2006 he deployed as a Brigadier to Afghanistan where part of his role was acting as the ISAF media spokesman and again in 2013 in the rank of Major General as Chief of Staff to the ISAF Joint Command in Kabul, the ISAF 3* Operational HQ, responsible for the drawdown of all Coalition forces in Afghanistan; he was awarded the US Legion of Merit. Apart from operations taught at the Joint Services Command and Staff College and he also specialised in personnel (HR) roles culminating in Chief of Defence People as a Lieutenant General and part of the Defence Executive Committee. He spent his final year writing a Review of Defence’s approach to Climate Change and Sustainability, and is now the Non Executive Director for Climate Change and Sustainability for Defence and the Cabinet appointed Non Executive Director for Net Zero for the Ministry of Defence.

Appointed MBE in June 1998 and CBE in January 2012, CVO in 2016 and CB in 2020, he is Chair of the Board of the Royal NAAFI and of a number of green energy and sustainability start ups, as well as a strategic advisor to a number of consultancies, advising on climate change and sustainability.

He is a Director of his own Strategic Advisory Company, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and is Patron, Chair and Trustee of a number of organisations. He has an MA in Military Affairs and is a Graduate of the City and Guilds Institute. He is married to Frances and has two sons and three Springer spaniels.