Speakers

Sir Charlie Stickland has served 38 years in the UK Armed Forces. His last appointment was as the UK Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) responsible for design and command of all UK global operations, integrating capability across Sea, Land, Air, Space & Cyber domains.  He led the delivery of UK’s support to Ukraine, whilst concurrently spearheading the UK’s operational interface with NATO, orchestrating UK’s response to tension in the Middle East, and shaping the UK’s approach to the Indo Asia Pacific region. Throughout this complex and ambiguous period, he championed the exploitation of technology and data driven operations across the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters seeking to create competitive advantage and catalyse Defence organisational change. 

Prior to Sir Charlie’s appointment as CJO, he was the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff for Operations in the Ministry of Defence with a particular focus on Counter Terrorist and UK Resilience operations. Notably, he led the UK military contribution response to the COVID crisis.  He has commanded at all levels, as the Commandant General of the Royal Marines (which included an EU Counter Piracy Mission, Op ATALANTA), Chief Joint Force Operations (UK lead for Crisis Response), 3 Commando Brigade RM and 42 Commando RM.

Next steps will see him operating at the nexus of defence and security, geopolitics and the exploitation of technology. He is soon to become the Chair of the Disaster Response Charity REACT and will mentor at the UK and Australian Higher Command / Joint Staff Colleges.