Rupert Jones – Keynote Speaker

Rupert Jones was the deputy commander of the US-led coalition that defeated ISIS. He is a former British Army major general with over 30 years’ experience leading in the most challenging and complex international crisis situations. He is now an expert advisor to start-ups and leadership coach to senior executives. Jones is also a sought-after media commentator and speaker.

Rupert has deep experience from leading on operations in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the Caribbean. His command of the British force of 5,000 troops in Afghanistan and his pivotal leadership during the liberation of Mosul and Raqqah from ISIS in 2016/17 offer him unique insights into the challenges of leading through complexity and adversity.

When not overseas he held a series of high level jobs in the Ministry of Defence including playing an instrumental role in the Coalition Government’s transformation of the Defence operating model. He also sat on the British Army’s executive board and worked as the Army’s Communications Director.

He now has a thriving portfolio career drawing on his extraordinary experiences to support organisations, senior executives and founders as they make the challenging decisions necessary for growth in tough economic and unstable times. His advisory and consultancy roles include: an Australian digital skills company; a synthetic environment software firm; a strategy execution firm; a US national security consultancy; a climate analytics start-up; and a clinical trial start-up. He previously mentored Oxford University’s tech accelerator and mentors with Amazon Web Services.

He shares his hard-won thoughts and conclusions on today’s confused leadership landscape that stem from binary, divisive and populist politics, and a trend outside politics towards monochrome and socially constrained leadership. He argues that we lack the leadership culture to thrive in today’s geo-political reality and offers ideas on how these trends must change.