Dr Michael O’Callaghan FRAeS

Mike is a leader within the UK’s Defence and Space community, with experience across a diverse range of roles within both the public and private sector, working across industry and academia and with national and international Governments and agencies. Mike regularly speaks at conferences and trade shows, as well as having appeared on podcasts, radio and TV including Times Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, British Forces Broadcasting Service, Wavell Rooms, and others.

He is graduate from the University of Nottingham where he obtained his PhD in Chemistry, and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Mike spent 15 years at Dstl, the research agency of the UK Ministry of Defence, most recently leading their Space Systems Programme through a period of significant growth between 2017 and 2022. This is in addition to a range of both corporate and technical leadership roles during his public sector career.

He moved to Airbus Defence and Space in early 2023 taking up the role of Head of Future Programmes, which includes leadership of the Airbus Research, Experimentation and Demonstration (RED) Hub with responsibility for engaging across the UK Defence R&D community.