Leadership, Executive
Education & Strategy

Duncan served as Director General Joint Force Development until 2018, responsible for ensuring the single Services can integrate on operations both with other Government Departments and internationally. This included articulating trends out to 30 years and providing individual through-career education and collective training to meet contemporary challenges. Previously he led capability development for the Royal Navy and has commanded at 1 & 2* level for NATO, EU and US led coalition operations.

Duncan served as a Royal Navy officer for 39 years. Originally a surface warfare anti-submarine officer, he commanded 3 major warships on operations, principally in the Middle East. He commanded the US led Coalition Task Group in the Northern Gulf as a Commodore and as a Rear Admiral led NATO’s High Readiness Force (Maritime) and commanded the European Union’s counter-piracy operation in the Indian Ocean at the height of the scourge of piracy. On his watch piracy was defeated. Also, as a Rear Admiral he was head of capability for the Royal Navy, Chief of Staff overseeing HQ reorganization, was an executive director on the Navy Board and was head of the surface ship fighting arm. More widely he has worked in the Ministry of Defence in resource programming and capability planning and as Military Assistant to the Vice Chief of Defence Staff. He has a strong background in Joint operations, notably as the 1* head of planning at the UK’s National Joint Operational HQ (PJHQ) and on the Joint Forces Command Board as Director General Joint Force Development and Director General of the Defence Academy of the UK. He is a graduate of The City University (Systems and Management), a fellow of The Windsor Leadership Trust and a Younger Brother of Trinity House.

John has considerable operational and MOD experience. He has had 4 sea commands including the Task Group that delivered maritime strike into Libya in 2011. He also served 4 times in the MOD. As Head of Finance and Military Capability (Navy) he was the maritime advisor to the MOD’s finance director and provided analysis on the Navy’s financial performance and where appropriate the reapportionment of resources. In 2005 he was the first senior advisor to the newly established head of the Iraqi Navy in Baghdad.

As a Rear Admiral John was the Director of the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) – the MOD’s independent strategic think tank providing impartial and objective advice to highest level policy makers in defence and across government. In addition to delivering all UK joint doctrine he oversaw the strategic trends programme (Global Strategic Trends and the Future Operating Environment) which set the long term context for policy makers.

He was then the Deputy Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies and in his final role before leaving the Service was the Commandant (2019-2020). RCDS is responsible for preparing the next generation of strategic military, civilian and industry leaders from the UK and 55 other nations.

Craig Lawrence was commissioned into the British Army's Gurkhas in 1983. After studying engineering science at Durham University, he joined his regiment in Hong Kong and then spent the next thirty-three years either serving with Gurkhas or filling a variety of appointments in various military headquarters, including the Ministry of Defence. Whilst in the Army, he completed numerous overseas tours and commanded his Gurkha battalion on operations in the Balkans and in Africa. His final operational deployment was to Afghanistan as the Director of the International Security Assistance Force’s (ISAF's) Election Support Cell, where. working with the Afghan authorities and the international community, he led the development and implementation of a strategy to reduce risk to the 2014 Presidential and Provincial Elections. He left the military as a major general in 2016 to join the staff of the Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) in London, where, until recently, he was the Course Director and Director of Strategy and Strategic Leadership.