Speakers

Colonel Giles Sugdon Colonel Sugdon was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, after which he read Turkish and Classical Arabic at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was sponsored on an Army Cadetship.

He commissioned into the Royal Logistic Corps in 2004 and spent his time as a junior officer serving in Germany, which included two operational deployments to Iraq and a deployment as a Military Observer Liaison Officer with the United Nations Forces in Cyprus. In 2008, Colonel Sugdon was assigned to 10 The Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment as Adjutant, which included a deployment to Afghanistan. In 2010, he was selected to be Aide de Camp to the Chief of the Defence Staff, the then General Sir David Richards.

In November 2012, Colonel Sugdon graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MLitt in Terrorism Studies having undertaken a four-year distance learning programme. His Initial Grade 2 staff appointment was in the Operations Directorate in the Ministry of Defence in London where he was SO2 Counter Terrorism and Emerging Operations for North and West Africa. In 2015, he returned to 10 The Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment as a Squadron Commander. In 2017, he was appointed as Military Assistant to Director Capability in Army Headquarters.

In 2018, he was selected for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel and attended the Advanced Command and Staff Course at Shrivenham, where he also undertook the King’s College London MA in Defence Studies. Following Staff College, he returned to the Ministry of Defence to be SO1 Commitments in International Policy and Strategy focusing on the Middle East. He then commanded 10 The Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment from September 2020 to June 2023, which included an operational deployment in support of the United Nations Forces in Cyprus.

In October 2023, Colonel Sugdon was assigned to the Ministry of Defence as Deputy Head International Capability Strategy, responsible for AUKUS Advanced Capabilities, Defence Partnership India and Japan. Colonel Sugdon is a Forward Institute Fellow for responsible leadership.