Vice Admiral (Ret'd) Duncan Potts

Duncan Potts joined the Royal Navy in 1979 and specialised in surface warfare as an Anti-Submarine Warfare Principal Warfare Officer.  He commanded the frigate HMS BRILLIANT, the destroyer HMS SOUTHAMPTON and the 4th Frigate Squadron when he commanded HMS MARLBOROUGH.  As a Commodore he was Commander UK Task Group and commanded the coalition task group in the Northern Gulf.  As a Rear Admiral he was Commander UK Maritime Forces, during which time he commanded NATO’s High Readiness Force Maritime and for 18 months the EU’s counter piracy operations in the Indian Ocean at the height of Somali Piracy.  Also as a Rear Admiral he served as the Royal Navy’s Head of Capability. He has served globally, for the last 20 years predominately in the Middle East region.  He also has extensive Joint experience where he has worked in MOD, has been head of plans at the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters  and as a Vice Admiral from 2014-2018 was DG Joint Force Development for UK MOD where he worked to ensure UK forces could integrate with each other, wider allies and partners across Government. This involved generating Joint C2, operating concepts out to 30 years and pan-Defence individual and collective training and education.