Brigadier James Cook OBE PhD

Head Personnel Strategy British Army

James Cook joined the British Army in 1995, commissioning into the Royal Regiment of Artillery and serving within 29 Commando Regiment and commanding 105th Regiment Royal Artillery. 

He is a qualified Gunnery Instructor and ISTAR Officer, having graduated from the Combat Arms Fighting Systems course at the Royal College of Military Sciences in 1999. He was a Company Commander at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2010-2011.

His operational experience is based in Sierra Leone in 1999 on OP SILKMAN and Afghanistan, OP HERRICK in 2006: both of which exploited his Joint Fires integration expertise.

On the General Staff he has been Assistant Head Future Concepts focusing on the future of warfare, crafting the Conceptual Force (Land) 2035. As Assistant Head career management for the General Staff in the Army Personnel Centre, the then Colonel James, sought to change how talent was tracked and assessed to enable more transparent appointing. As the Director Programme CASTLE, looking into the future of talent management, he delivered the Army Talent Framework, which quantified the outputs and skills of the entire British Army via a skills framework, which is now aligned with the entirety of UK Defence.

In autumn 2023 James become the Head of all Personnel Strategy for the British Army, specifically looking at the future of how we Live, Work and Train in the 2030s, known as Project APEX. This is a marvellous way to link his career management, programme delivery, futures work and academic understanding into a project that can truly challenge the understanding of how to get the most from the Army’s human capital.

Brigadier James is the Chairman of the Army Rugby Union and represents the Army’s view on the RFU Council at Twickenham. In 2022 he was appointed to the Board of the RFU, responsible for all rugby matters in England. In November 2016 he was appointed OBE for services to Army sport. He is the Chair of the Royal Artillery Historical Committee. Chair of the Governors of John Hanson School and Chair of the Parent Teacher Association of Portway school.

He completed his PhD in 2020 on how the British Army transformed in the First World War. He is married to a far more talented officer, Lt Col Helen Cook RLC, SO1 Personnel in Field Army HQ. When not supporting his family, local schools, or rugby, he is a keen road cyclist. Helen and James have two children, Evie (8) and Toby (7) and two Great Danes called Maddie and Maverick.