Redstone Risk Ltd is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor John Louth as a strategic advisor to the Board. Founder and managing director Will Foulds stated that:
“In John, we have an advisor who has worked at the heart of the defence and security markets in the UK and abroad and is a recognised thought leader in the sector. His ideas on ethical and effective support to the Defence effort, through companies like ours, coupled with his extensive contacts in industry, academia, government and across the military, will drive our growth and maturity as the business of choice for our clients. I’m delighted to welcome him to the Redstone family.”
Professor Louth was in the military between 1987 and 2004 before turning his attention to commerce and academia. As an author and business leader, his passion is to explore, understand and explain the complexities of defence capability generation and management drawn from a multi-faceted public-private enterprise, embracing defence prime contractors, technologists, SMEs, the armed forces, families, investors and governments.
John said of his appointment: “I’m delighted to be working with Will and his team which, in my view, is one of the best small teams working in the sector on complex programmes and project, where their risk management expertise and extensive experience add enormous value to the generation of UK defence capability.”
Between 2011 and 2019, John was the director of the defence, industries and society research programme at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI). During this time, he published extensively on defence industrial strategy and procurement practices, both in the UK and internationally. He advised the Colombian government on defence industrial reform, as part of the peace process, and chaired the UK-Australian Defence Maritime Collaboration Dialogue in London and Sydney. John was also the independent chair of the MoD-Industry Nuclear Engineering Skills Review.
Since 2012, John has been a specialist adviser to the UK House of Commons’ Defence Select Committee. Before Brexit, he was the UK representative on the pan-European research body for the EU on defence capability and readiness. John is a non-executive director and advisory board member of a number of businesses operating in the defence, security and advisory sectors. Since 2019, he has worked with the NATO SHAPE Headquarters in developing and mentoring the Management Board.
His latest book on UK defence policy and practice was published by Routledge in 2019, reissued in 2021, and his next on defence exports will be published shortly. Much of his mentoring work is conducted from his home in rural North Devon where he gardens adequately though with enthusiasm.
