Air Marshal M Matheswaran is the former Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (DCIDS) at HQ IDS, responsible for Policy, Perspective Plans and Force Development. He retired on 31 March 2014 after 39 years of service with the IAF. Commissioned as a fighter pilot in 1975, he has held many important commands and staff appointments in his 39-year service career. He has extensive experience in Operations, Aerospace Technology, Aerospace Development and Flight Testing, Defence Research and Strategy, Project Management experience in important projects such as the LCA and Kaveri. This vast experience has enabled him to make an impact on various Policies through many of his studies for the Air Force and MOD.He was Senior Advisor to CMD, HAL at Bangalore from May 2014 to May 2015.He was "President, Aerospace Business" of Reliance from 01 Nov 2015 to 31 July 2016 at Mumbai, helping the industry major to set up its Aerospace Vertical. In August he decided to return to Chennai for personal commitments, and function independently. He was strategic advisor & consultant on Defence & Aerospace for CYIENT, Hyderabad from August 2016 to May 2020. He has now established independent practice as a Strategic Analyst in National & International Security, and as Strategic Consultant for Defence and Aerospace Business.He is active in academic work and presents papers in international conferences. He was amember of the Executive Council, the governing body of IDSA (Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis), New Delhi - an autonomous think tank under MOD from 2014 to 2018. He is active with various think-tanks and institutions such as ISA, USI, CAPS, ORF, and IISS.He is the founder Chairman & President of 'The Peninsula Foundation', a non-profit and non-partisan public-policy research think tank based in Chennai.