I was elected as the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley in November 2012. I am also a member of West Berks Council, and was a member of the Thames Valley Police Authority for several years taking over as Chairman of the Performance Committee in 2011 as well as being the vice-chairman of the Audit, Governance and Risk Committee.I have had a career in both the military and in industry. I enlisted in the army at 17 and joined the Royal Green Jackets seeing active service in Borneo and Northern Ireland. I learnt to fly helicopters at Middle Wallop and commanded various Army Air Corps Squadrons, including the Army helicopters in the Falkland Islands in the latter half of 1982.I spent 2 years as Chief of Staff Intelligence in the Far East. On leaving the Army I was Marketing, and then, for 6 years, Managing Director of the aircraft company Pilatus Britten Norman, which had aircraft in over 100 countries. At the same time I commanded the Army reserve helicopters as a TA officer. All three UK Armed services use the aircraft I produced, and the Defender 4000, which I brought into service, is the last fully certified aircraft produced in the UK.While in the Army I spent 4 months carrying out the reconnaissance for the crossing of the Darien Gap in Panama and Columbia, and led the first stage of Operation Raleigh, taking young people through the jungles of Honduras and Belize. I was, for 8 years, a trustee of the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. I have an MSc and studied international terrorism and global security in depth at university.
Listed skills include Intelligence, Strategic Planning, Police, Army, and 9 others.
