Dr Alex Walmsley FRAeS

Dr Alex Walmsley FRAeS is the Director of Ashbourne Strategic Consulting Ltd, the Westminster-based defence and security consultancy, which she established in 2004. Since 2014 she has also been UK Managing Director of GEL Laboratories, the USA’s largest independent radiochemistry laboratory, which supports the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Alex is a Senior Adviser to Newton Europe and to the specialist defence PR agency CMS Strategic. In 2020 she was appointed as a Special Adviser to FIPRA, the global public affairs consultancy.  

Alex was a board member of the Defence Advisory Group of the Department of International Trade’s Defence and Security Organisation from 2008-2014. She was appointed an Associate Fellow of RUSI in 2006 and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2012.   

Before moving into defence consultancy, Alex was the defence analyst at the Centre for European Reform (1998-2000). From 2000-2004 she was co-director of defence consultants ABA.  

Alex has written numerous articles, policy papers and a book on Lithuanian history. She is a frequent media commentator on defence and aerospace issues. 

At St Andrews University, while completing her PhD on post-Soviet Lithuania, Alex lectured on history and politics. She also worked as a researcher on defence issues for Lord Campbell of Pittenweem.