Brigadier (Ret’d) Robbie Boyd OBE

Brigadier Robbie Boyd commissioned from Sandhurst into the Royal Irish Rangers in 1987. He holds three master’s degrees from Cranfield University, the University of Cambridge and the United States Army War College. He is a graduate of the United Nations Senior Mission Leaders Course. His last military role was as the principal adviser and assistant to the Chair of the NATO Military Committee.

His operational experience includes many tours in Northern Ireland, United Nations Protection Force in Bosnia, Iraq, Cyprus and Afghanistan, where led a multi-national Combined Force in Helmand Province. He commanded the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, ‘Lions of England’, through the longest operational tour by a British regiment in recent history; deploying into Afghanistan for sixteen months. During 2017, he held the post of Chief of Staff for the 17,000 strong United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

As military lead for NATO and Europe Policy in the UK Ministry of Defence, he negotiated and built the UK’s Joint Expeditionary Force and held strategic responsibilities for UK/France cooperation before being selected by Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach to be his Military Assistant as the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff.

Awarded the Estonian Meritorious Service Cross for command of Estonian soldiers in combat and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his leadership during operations in Cyprus and Afghanistan, he also holds several United Nations Commendations and was awarded NATO’s Meritorious Service Medal by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in 2021.

A member of the Alphen Group of strategic thinkers, he currently leads the major American digital company Gartner’s consulting activities across the NATO enterprise.