Meet Our Staff

About Phil

Phil Williams has been Managing Director of Team Defence Information (TD-Info) since 2015, following 20 years in AeroSystems Engineering with the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) and a decade in business development roles within aerospace/defence companies.

He also chairs the Integrated Product Support Council, the pan USA/European body that develops through life support specifications under the auspices of the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and the Aerospace Industries Association of the USA. Phil also runs the UK’s Joint Information Standards Co-ordination Team and participates in the NATO data exchange working group.

Phil’s military and commercial experience leads to a view that optimised delivery of operational capability requires successful collaboration between military, civil service and industry – the basis of the Whole Force concept, or “Team Defence”.

Away from the office, and aren’t we all these days, Phil continues to play 5-a-side football much to the disbelief and amusement of his wife and team mates!

About Sue

Sue has worked as Office Manager on a consultancy basis since October 2002. Her role includes event organisation and management, membership management, website maintenance and administration, financial management and accounting, graphics/design work for publications/event promotion and marketing.

Sue is also Office Manager for DAMA UK and has a similar role; in addition she is Company Secretary and Treasurer for DAMA UK. Sue also enjoys organising social events for both organisations and externally under her own company name. Sue mainly works from her home office.

About Suzette

Suzette has worked full time for Team Defence Informatoin (formerly called ‘UKCeB’) since March 2004 as Personal Assistant to the Managing Director.

Suzette’s role has expanded over time to include running the TD-Info Secretariat which involves administrating the Working Groups and assisting the Task Force.

Suzette is the TD-Info Company Secretary and, as such, is responsible for managing Council meetings; she also works closely with MOD for the purposes of the Joint Information Group (JIG) and other Working Group meetings.

Suzette supports Task Force colleagues, including curating content on the website and coordinating visits/events and liasing with peers in member organisations as appropriate.  Suzette is office based and endeavours to ensure good communication with members, including the MOD, and smooth running of the office.

About Wendy

Wendy has worked for Team Defence Information since January 2019 on a job share basis with Suzette Payne supporting Task Force Colleagues and members of Team Defence Information.

Wendy’s background has been in Defence having worked for Strachan & Henshaw for almost 20 years from 1970 to 1999. She has also worked for the rail infrastructure and penultimately for Babcock for the last 9 years working as Personal Assistant to the Chief Digital Information Officer and Defence Director.

About Will

Will joined Team Defence Information as the Collaboration Programme Manager in May 2020.  He is as a secondee from BAE Systems Office of the Chief Information Officer where he worked as an IM&T Information Security Manager and previously as the Crisis Management Project Manager.

Will has worked in a number of roles and businesses within BAE Systems since joining the graduate scheme at the Barrow in Furness site working in the Submarines business. In his tenure he has worked on a number of projects in the Construction, Nuclear, Aircraft Maintenance and Repair, Business Continuity and Information Security sectors.

Will’s role within Team Defence is coordinating, managing, facilitating and administrating joint MOD/Industry boards, working groups, projects and events. He is also responsible for facilitating collaborative working group activities such as research, idea generation, policy reviews, the publication of position papers, road mapping, requirement setting and responses to requests for support and communicating outputs collaboratively through various channels including presentations at events and written briefs to senior leaders.

About Graham

Graham has a BSc (Hons) in IT and Computing. Having served 28 years in the Royal Air Force as a Logistics Officer specialising in Supply Chain, IT and mathematical modelling, he now works as an independent consultant.

He was heavily involved in Tornado Partnered Support contract development, representing the customer while adding value across many work streams. He has subsequently been employed as the military Supply Chain specialist in the Project Team.

With an aptitude for IT, he has been involved in the analysis, production and implementation of small systems as well as providing SME input into larger projects such as BIWMS.

He also served 4 years with Logistic Research & Modelling Organisation running the Fast Jet Supply Chain Optimisation Team responsible for recommending maintenance policy, scales and procurement levels.

A keen sportsman, Graham has been forced to retire from playing football, hockey and skiing due to the ravages of time and injuries, but remains an avid armchair supporter. He is also a DIY enthusiast with a particular interest in carpentry. However, married with 2 young children he finds he has little time to indulge these passions.

About Steve

Steve is the Research and Innovation Lead. Steve’s roles in TD-Info include:

• DSFDB SWG
• Data
• Sustsainability
• Supply Chain
• Distribution
• Digital Twin COP
• Engineering Support Transformation User Forum
• Supply Chain, warehouse and distribution Industry Engagement Group
• SME SearchLight
• Future Caoability Group Open Innovation Laboratory

About Bob

Bob has a MSc in systems engineering from Cranfield University; he is a Chartered Engineer and member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Bob has held senior management positions within various industries including Aerospace, Security, and Information Technology.

He began his career as an engineering officer in the Royal Air Force managing the operational readiness and through-life support of Jaguar, Tornado, and Harrier aircraft with first-hand experience of sustained carrier-borne operations.

Bob has spent the past 20 years working for major IT systems integration companies bringing a wealth of experience delivering secure cloud computing services and complex digital transformation programmes for clients across public and private sectors. He is very accustomed to working collaboratively with supplier partners having successfully introduced the Service Integration and Management (SIAM) model for various government organisations.

About Tony

About Luca

Luca works with TD-Info as an independent consultant. Beginning his career with Morgan Advanced Materials as an aerospace engineer, he quickly moved into Business Development and Project Management and built extensive experience of MOD procurement and the defence and aerospace markets.

Luca has chaired the Defence Export Focus Group and sat as advisor on several other boards on behalf of ADS Group, publishing the International Defence Market Strategy in 2016. Luca now works with Defence and Security organisations building Business Development, Bid Management and Project strategies.  

About Leyton

Leyton began his career as an engineer with Rolls Royce. He has a BSc (Hons) in engineering from Kingston upon Thames and is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institution on Mechanical Engineers, and of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He has studied business and management in both the UK and USA and has a Masters in Business Administration from Loughborough University.

He works predominantly in Aerospace and Defence and, in a twenty four year career with Rolls Royce, held senior management positions in procurement, supply chain and general management leading operational improvement and strategic change across a range of businesses. He worked as a consultant for Capgemini for five years gaining further experience in both the public and private sector including the UK MoD.

About Ciaran

Ciaran Dodd began training in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English® (STE) in 2002, whilst at Rolls-Royce, which is where she became involved in training all aspects of writing, including ASD-STE100. After leaving the organisation, Ciaran set up an independent consultancy specialising in interpersonal and written communication. She has extensive experience of working with major names in engineering; particularly in the defence, aerospace, and automotive industries. She has taught all aspects of the English language in commercial and public organisations since 1994. In 2020, Ciaran became the UK representative on the STE Maintenance Group and chair of the UK STE Working Group.

About Julian

Julian is an experienced Defence support specialist. Following an initial career in gas turbine maintenance Julian moved into supportability analysis and consultancy performing roles including supportability engineer, Integrated Logistic Support (ILS) manager, support service solution architect, business development, and managing director.  

After 20 years of maintenance and supportability engineering work, over the last 15 years Julian has specialised in the design of long-term performance-based support service contracts (across land, sea, and air domains) for complex equipment working with defence companies such as BAE Systems, Leonardo, Rolls-Royce and Thales, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) and the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). Julian also has extensive experience of support modelling techniques and tools. 

Julian has a deep understanding of support and support related standards. This includes Def-Stan 00-600 (and 00-60), MIL-STD-1388 (1A & 2B), Def-Stan 00-40 (and associated standards), the ASD IPS S-Series, STEP AP239 (PLCS) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).  

Julian works as a membership executive for TD-Info

About Steve

Steve is Managing Director of Steve Shepherd & Associates. Formed in 2013 Steve Shepherd & Associates offers clients proven leadership experience in the transformation of company strategy and operation; welcoming and delivering business change programmes with a personal style of consensus building and collaboration, direction, empowerment and communication.

Steve worked for Rolls-Royce for 43 years. After graduating from Oxford University worked in Advanced Engineering, Customer Support, Marketing, Project Management and overseas as a Rolls-Royce management representative. He spent 5 years in Supply Chain/Procurement and 6 years in Civil Aerospace as Project Executive on the Rolls-Royce/BMW collaboration and on the Civil Engine Executive as Director of Quality Systems, Improvement and Information Technology for the Rolls-Royce Airlines business. Between 2001 and 2004 he ran a corporate Centre of Competence covering all processes from the first touch of a customer, through the selling, support and service phases. Between 1999 and 2005 he also led the European Sector of the 50+ company International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG).

Steve joined UKCeB ( now Team Defence Information) in January 2005 as Executive Director to help drive the mission of ‘transforming secure information sharing for through life collaboration in defence acquisition and support’ with the MOD.

Steve was involved in the creation of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust in 1980 and led the work to convert from a Membership organisation to a Company limited by guarantee and has been a Director of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust since this point.

Steve is presently working on 4 main projects:

– Consultancy to Team Defence Information to organise Defence Information, an annual event for MOD and Defence Industry information professionals and a one-off event to organise an S100D User Forum in London
– Derby Campaign for Real Ale Beer Festivals Planning with responsibility for Sponsorship; the selection of 4 Brewery Bars, Sponsorship of Glasses, Beer Tokens, Staff and Sales t-shirts and Programme adverts
– Director of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust and General Secretary, Company Secretary and Chairman of the Rolls-Royce Power and Propulsion Collection

Steve has SC clearance and is a Member of the Institute of Directors.

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About Stu

Stu has extensive experience of delivering commercial benefit across a wide range of technical sectors, with specialist knowledge in the defence, aerospace and off high way markets. Since completing 26 years service in the Army (REME), where he worked across a range of operational, support and procurement roles, Stu has held senior positions in industry in both consultant engineering and product delivery organisations, securing and supporting the successful delivery of complex & high value technology projects. He has a strong network developed during his career in the armed services, public and private sectors and is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering and Technology. Stu most recently worked as a Senior Commercial Manager for Williams Advanced Engineering, building their adjacent sector business area and now runs his own business supporting micro & SME organisations define their value proposition and increase their revenue streams through the exploitation of their technology. Out of work Stu enjoys spending time with his family, cycling and gardening. He is a keen allotment holder, and dabbles in the art of woodwork when he has any spare time.

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