Brigadier (Ret'd) John Ridge

Chief Adoption Officer NATO Innovation Fund

John’s first formal engagement with the Armed Forces was when he joined the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers Militia in 1989 as a Territorial Army sapper. After a gap year commission with the Royal Engineers, he went to the University of Leeds where he studied Architectural Engineering. After completing his degree in 1995, he joined the Regular Army. As a junior Royal Engineers officer, he completed tours with Commando forces and Gurkha engineers, deploying to Northern Ireland, Norway, Oman, Kosovo and Bosnia. He later commanded a bomb disposal squadron and a close support engineer regiment, including three tours of Helmand Province, Afghanistan. His staff tours included two years as the Military Assistant to the Ministry of Defence’s 2-star operations lead, a tour developing the UK’s offensive counter-IED strategy at the height of the Afghan campaign, and time as the Army Pay Colonel. After attending Higher Command and Staff Course (HCSC), he took command of 8 Engineer Brigade, overseeing a large construction project in the Falkland Islands and the Brigade’s first deployments to South Sudan and Estonia. In September 2017, he was appointed Chief of Joint Force Operations in the Joint Force Headquarters, a tour which included deploying to the Caribbean as the Joint Task Force Commander for the UK’s crisis response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria. John left the Army in 2020 to join the Civil Service. He spent two years as Director Strategy and Enterprise Services in Defence Intelligence, part of UK Strategic Command, where he led transformation and corporate services. In March 2022, he moved to 10 Downing Street on a six-month loan, leading transformation in No10 and working as part of a broader Cabinet Office change programme. He returned to MOD in September as Director Defence Innovation where he led Defence's innovation portfolio, including being the UK representative on the NATO DIANA Board of Directors and leading the Innovation Working Group in AUKUS Pillar 2. After just over two years in this post, John left government for the first time to join the NATO Innovation Fund as their first Chief Adoption Officer. Outside work John is a keen indoor rower, cyclist and runner. He is married to Nina, a broadcast meteorologist and teacher, and they have four children.