Speakers

Brigadier Richard Alston joined the Royal Marines in 2000.  After initial appointments, which included Op JACANA in Afghanistan, he became a Unit Signals Officer. Following promotion to Major he had a brief tour at the Permanent Joint Headquarters, where he conducted operational analysis into counter-insurgence methodologies before he assumed sub-unit command of a specialist squadron.  An appointment to 3 Commando Brigade as the Brigade Operations Officer followed in 2012.  On promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in 2014 he was appointed to Joint Forces Command as a Capability lead for Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Command, Control, Communications and Computers. He subsequently moved to Commander Amphibious Force in a planning role and was selected to command 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group Royal Marines.  Following a brief stint in an Information Warfare Capability Development role for the Future Commando Force, he was promoted to Colonel and selected as the head of strategy and Chief Information Officer for a specialist area of Defence.  He attended the Royal College of Defence Studies and joined Defence Digital, initially as an internal consultant, designing a pan-defence people strategy to support the wider national digital strategy, before taking on his main role as the programme lead for Defence Campaign Advantage.  On promotion to Brigadier, he became the Deputy Director for Cyber and Electromagnetic Effects and Special Operations, a complex role with responsibility for the development of the Digital Targeting Web. 
Brigadier Richard Alston Royal Marines is married to Helen and has three children.  As a weekly commuter with three children, he rarely finds enough time to cycle, read, camp and mend things the kids have broken.  But he’s a tryer…