Deputy Director, Health Safety & Environmental Protection Policy, Ministry of Defence

Policy Fellow Alumnus, Centre for Science and Policy

Rob has been Head, Health Safety Environment Protection at the Ministry of Defence since December 2019. Previously, he was Head of Defence Science and Technology Change in the Ministry of Defence, working with the Chief Scientific Adviser. Prior to this he was Senior Adviser, New Commercial Models at the British Film Institute, Head of Efficiency Team at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and Chief Executive of Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), which was created within the Department for Media, Culture and Sport as a delivery vehicle for the Government's policies on broadband.

He was previously Director of the Office for Life Sciences in BIS. Before this he was Director Manufacturing, with national policy responsibility for the Manufacturing Advisory Service. As Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Transport he provided policy advice on road and rail infrastructure projects - including road pricing and crossrail. At QinetiQ Plc he led the EU contract research programme across civil aerospace, energy, and communications technology.

During his Policy Fellowship, Rob explored a wide range of research areas which have a bearing on the work of BDUK, including technology (particularly photonics, electronics, radio), engineering, economics (customer willingness to pay, customer behaviour), security and resilience, business models (investment risks and returns), and comparison with other infrastructure areas.