The defence secretary has named Rupert Pearce, former chief of the satellite communications company Inmarsat, as national armament director.
Pearce will be tasked with reforming defence procurement and delivering a new defence industrial strategy. Both the Public Accounts Committee and the Defence Committee have described the defence procurement system as "broken", with billions wasted on contracts that have been delayed and run over budget.
When it announced the creation of the role a year ago, the Ministry of Defence said the NAD would be asked to "ensure the armed forces are properly equipped to defend Britain, to build up the British defence industry and to crack down on waste”.
The job forms part of the MoD's new leadership "quad" structure – alongside the permanent secretary, chief of defence staff and chief of defence nuclear – created in reforms defence secretary John Healey said would represent the “biggest shake up of UK defence for over 50 years”.
The role comes with a salary of up to £400,000, with an annual bonus that could push the total pay package as high as £640,000 – making it one of government's all-time highest-paid roles.
Announcing the appointment today, Healey said the director will be a “cornerstone of defence reform, positioning the UK to meet evolving global threats whilst making defence an engine for growth in communities across the nation”.
He said Pearce is “an exceptional leader with extensive experience in high-value budgets, effective reform, and delivery on the global stage” who will “ensure our forces have the equipment they need, on time and on budget”.
Pearce is a lawyer and former equity partner at the global law firm Linklaters. He has worked for a number of major tech companies and was chief executive of Inmarsat from 2012 to 2021. He has since spent a year as chief exec at long-duration energy storage company Highview Power.
Announcing the appointment, the MoD said Pearce’s “proven track record of managing large-scale organisations, driving innovation and building international partnerships makes him ideally suited to lead the transformation of how defence works with industry to deliver for our Armed Forces”.
It also pointed to his venture-capital experience, which it said will “bolster his role working with UK Defence Innovation, supporting firms of all sizes to take state-of-the-art technology from the drawing board to the production line”.
Pearce has been a venture partner at Columbia Capital, which invests in digital infrastructure and communications companies, since 2021. He was also a partner at Atlas Venture, which focuses on biotech companies, in the 2000s.
Pearce will be responsible for implementing the defence industrial strategy, as well as overseeing a single investment budget, consolidating eight separate procurement budgets across the organisation.
"This streamlined approach aims to cut procurement waste and duplication whilst boosting NATO interoperability and ensuring a resilient supply chain," the MoD said.
Pearce said he is “deeply honoured” to have been appointed as NAD..
“It is vital that our Armed Forces have cutting-edge capabilities at their disposal to project an effective deterrent, both alone and in conjunction with NATO and our other allies,” he said.
“To deliver this, we will transform MoD’s relationship with its industrial partners so that the UK defence industry becomes a strategic asset, innovating at wartime pace and driving economic growth. I look forward to working with all my new stakeholders to deliver on this vision.”
Pearce starts in his new role today on a five-year, fixed-term basis. Defence Equipment and Support chief executive Andy Start, who has been acting as national armaments director in an interim capacity, will support him for the first few months of his tenure, the MoD said.