UK-Japan Defence and Technology Symposium

Adam Painter is a Commercial & Adoption Manager at NATO DIANA, focused on innovation, investment, and adoption for defence. His background spans Formula 1, defence tech, venture building, and venture capital. Adam is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and holds an MBA from Imperial College Business School. He earned his BEng in Engineering from Oxford Brookes University.

Former Managing Partner of Stratton Street Capital LLP, who in 2014 stepped back from day-to-day management. Until last year, he remained a Director of the succeeding Fund structures, Epic Funds PCC, which launched the very first offshore Renminbi Fund in 2007, and was Chairman of Epic Funds UCITS until December 2025.

He was an Advisor to INDOS Financial Group, which was set up in 2012 to be the first UK Independent Depository to take advantage of the introduction of the AIFMD rules in Europe. Since then, it has grown to have oversight of over $35 billion under its administration, made up of 145 Funds from 75 different Investment Managers. oversight. They have developed several initiatives in developing ESG Services. In 2022, they gained their Depository License in Ireland before becoming part of JTC. He resigned in April 2023.

Andrew Wells is the Head of Inward Investment and Inclusive Economy at Swindon Borough Council, bringing over 12 years of expertise in economic development and business support. A recognised UK lead on inward investment, Andrew has a proven track record of driving regional growth, having previously led regional investment directorate portfolios for the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Ernst & Young. His career bridges both the public and private sectors, giving him a unique understanding of how to navigate national policy to unlock local commercial opportunities. Known for pioneering "gold standard" inward investment frameworks, Andrew specialises in high-value foreign direct investment (FDI), stakeholder engagement, and launching high-growth sector initiatives, including Swindon’s recent Unmanned Autonomous System (UAS) cluster.

Chris has more than 35 years of experience in aerospace engineering, innovation and senior leadership, spanning the full product lifecycle from emerging technologies and new product introduction to in-service support for military and commercial applications. His background spans satellite cooling, flight controls, power generation, aero-engine and nuclear control systems. Since joining the MAA in 2021, he has led and supported innovation programmes with SME manufacturers across electric flight, sustainable manufacturing, digitalisation and AI. He recently co-authored a detailed analysis of the Midlands aerospace supply chain, offering comprehensive insight into the region's capabilities.

David Somerville is General Manager of Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd. Educated in Scotland, he obtained an MBA from Strathclyde University and later an MSc from Wolfson College, Cambridge, in Business Excellence. He has 20 years’ experience in the semiconductor industry, working primarily for Motorola and Siemens Semiconductors, where his roles included Operations Director, Wafer Fabrication Manager, and ultimately Project Director focused on business start-ups. He moved into MEMS in 2001, responsible for MEMS start-ups within BAE Systems. He has worked in aerospace and defence in numerous senior roles over the last 20 years, returning to run Silicon Sensing Systems in 2023.

Indranil is a Certified Corporate Director, Chartered Engineer, and leader in insurance and technology. He is a Non-Executive Director on several boards, Managing Partner at Gekkō Advisory, Associate Professor at City, St George’s University of London, a Visiting Fellow in AI Evaluations, a Visiting Lecturer in Engineering Management at Loughborough University, and a Lecturer at Chuo University teaching Comparative Management.

Indranil has lived in Japan for over 20 years, is a native Japanese speaker, and has led high-level trade dialogues. He promotes bilateral investment, SME access, technology collaboration, innovation, and a long-term UK–Japan economic partnership, strengthening ties across industries and growth. An alumnus of Cambridge’s Judge Business School, he earned an MBA and a PhD in Engineering Management. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and the Chartered Institute for IT. He was named one of the Top 100 Diverse Leaders in Tech in 2021.

Duncan is Deloitte UK's Chief Strategy Officer and leads our UK defence practice. Duncan also leads Deloitte’s Strategy, Analytics and M&A (SAMA) Consulting Offering Portfolio in the UK. This comprises the Monitor Deloitte and Net Zero strategy teams, the firm’s AI & Data practice and AI Institute, and the M&A strategy & transformation capability. Duncan has worked across multiple industry sectors over his career and is currently the Lead Client Service Partner for our Defence business in the UK and Middle East. He is passionate about helping clients address their most complex business problems by developing actionable strategies that deliver value through growth, cost reduction, restructuring and digital transformation.

George joined Babcock International in 2015 after earning a master’s in international development and security from Cambridge. He started on the graduate scheme and later joined the Global Growth & Operations team to support business development across sectors. His work included fleet management for emergency vehicles and baggage infrastructure, aiding successful bids in Europe, South Africa, and Canada. In January 2020, George became Head of Strategy & Business Performance for the Assets unit in the Land sector.

This unit managed vehicle fleets for the London Metropolitan Police and Fire Brigade and handled specialist vehicle conversions for government agencies, including Toyota armoured vehicles for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and custom solutions for the Metropolitan Police. In April 2022, George led Babcock Land’s first system integration contract, converting Land Rovers to battery-electric vehicles for trial—first for the British Armed Forces. He then led the R&D team in the Engineering & System Integration unit. As Campaign Director, George leads Babcock’s GLV programme, leveraging a 25-year partnership with Toyota to convert Land Cruiser 70 Series vehicles into military platforms.

Masaki Ikegami entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992 after graduating from the University of Kyoto. He specialised in Russian language and has spent much of his career focused on Russia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. He was appointed Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in the UK in August 2024. His most recent posting before that was as Deputy Director of the European Affairs Bureau and as Ambassador and Special Representative for Central Asia and the Caucasus.

John was appointed Chair of the Institute of Directors in July 2024. Throughout his extensive executive career, spanning both large and smaller companies, he served as chief executive of Dunelm, Dixons and Monsoon Accessorise; as Senior Vice President of Retail at Apple; as Group Operations Development Director at Tesco; and, until recently, as chair of Octopus Group. In addition to his role as Chair of the Institute, John chairs the fraud-prevention organisation Cifas, and Euroffice, Northern Business Plastics, Just Move In, Yoti, and Wehkamp BV. He is also a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group. John holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Wharton Business School (Palmer Scholar).

Julie serves as Director of International Relations at ADS, the UK’s leading trade association, representing more than 1,500 members across aerospace, defence, security, and space. Her career spans senior roles in government, the military, and international organisations, reflecting deep expertise in global security policy and legal frameworks. Before joining ADS, Julie was a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Business Engagement at Policy Exchange, one of the UK’s most influential think tanks. Her earlier career includes distinguished service as a Legal Advisor in the French Air Force and at NATO Commands, specialising in the Law of Armed Conflict, Operational Law, and Air Law.

Julie has held pivotal international roles, including Director of Communications and Military Liaison in the office of UN Under-Secretary-General Jane Holl Lute at the United Nations Secretariat in New York, and Deputy Legal Advisor at NATO’s Joint Force Command in Naples. She has advised on legal matters during military deployments in Libya, Afghanistan, Qatar, and Kosovo, and served as Legal Advisor to France’s Air Defence Operational Command. Beyond military institutions, Julie was appointed to the General Secretariat for National Defence and Security under the French Prime Minister, where she developed expertise in armaments export control regulations and policy.

Kate Robertson, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Edgewing. Kate brings experience from previous roles at BAE Systems Air, Microsoft and PA Consulting Group.

Kazuhiro began his career at TOYOTA, where he developed global strategies for lightweight and advanced materials, including composites, for next-generation vehicles. Kaz also led an autonomous driving project at a Tokyo-based startup specialising in AI, drones and robotics. At AeroEdge, Kaz leads all advanced R&D, innovation and operations. Kaz earned a master’s degree in engineering management from Duke University, an MBA from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in metal 3D printing for jet engine turbine blades.

Luke Pollard MP was appointed Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence on 21 July 2026. He was elected Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport in 2017. He has a background in business, with experience on major construction projects and with ITV, South West Water, Sainsbury’s, Edelman, and ABTA. He was also a Director at Field Consulting, where he advised firms in the rail, transport, and construction sectors and worked on skyscrapers, football stadiums, and housing development projects.
After being elected to Parliament, he held several shadow briefs in opposition, including Shadow Environment Secretary, before joining government in July 2024 as Minister for the Armed Forces. He served as Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry.

Maurizio started working at Leonardo in 1989 and spent the first two decades in Engineering, ultimately taking responsibility for Avionic Systems across all Leonardo Aircraft Division products. He has been involved in several international cooperative programmes and in management roles within joint ventures around the world. During his career, he was also appointed as responsible for Research and Innovation and as Equipment Procurement Director. He joined the GCAP programme as Leonardo Aircraft Division Program Manager, after which he moved to the UK when Edgewing was created.

Michael Henshaw, Professor of Systems Engineering at Loughborough since 2006, specialises in Systems of Systems (SoS) research. He led the £8M Network Enabled Capability programme, a joint university-industry project. With a first-class honours in Applied Physics and a PhD on laser fusion modelling, he previously worked for 17 years at British Aerospace in Aeronautical and Systems Engineering. His current focus includes integrating complex networked systems, SoS, Cyber-Physical Systems, robotics, quantum Systems Engineering, and MBSE. He has led EU programmes (T-AREA-SoS and TAMS4CPS) on complex systems, and his Open Architectures work has impacted UK industry and government. He co-chairs the IEEE SMC Society TCS and serves as Technical Director of the Institute for Systems Engineering.

Professor Rajkumar Roy is internationally recognised for developing the scientific basis of through-life engineering services (TES) and cost engineering over more than 27 years. He led TES research and education in the UK through the national EPSRC Through-life Engineering Services Centre and collaborated closely with industry to develop a cross-sector, publicly available specification for TES. His cost engineering research has fundamentally changed understanding of the engineering effort required to design, make and support complex engineering systems. As chair of the Social Value Leadership Group at the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, he supports engineering to generate economic and social value.

Simon has over 30 years’ experience in the defence and security sector, spanning government, industry, politics and academia. As Leonardo's strategy and technology director in the UK, Simon leads the company's strategy, research and development, innovation, intellectual property and partnership activity. Simon also advises numerous technology start-ups, serves as an expert adviser to the HMG Cabinet Office National Security Risk Secretariat, is a board member of the UK’s Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster, and chairs the ADS Science and Technology group. Simon previously served as director of defence and security at Cranfield University and as chairman of the academic Resilience, Intelligence and Security Community (RISC) group, reporting to the security minister. Prior to this, Simon worked for Boeing’s Phantom Works and for His Majesty’s Government in various roles across the MOD and the Foreign Office, and served an eight-year term as a district councillor.

Scott McClelland is a senior leader at TEKEVER, Europe’s leading autonomous systems provide, where he serves as UK Corporate Director supporting TEKEVER’S significant expansion efforts in the UK and internationally. A former civil servant, Scott worked across several UK Government departments in strategy, policy, business architecture, transformation, and procurement. In his final government role, Scott led economic development and the creation of new technology industry clusters. Scott holds a BSc Hons degree in mathematics and an MSc in applied mathematics.

Tomosaku Sohara is Co-Founder and General Partner at NordicNinja VC, a Japan-backed venture capital firm investing in European deep tech companies across energy, mobility, and industrial transformation. He focuses on capital-intensive, hardware-enabled businesses reshaping critical infrastructure and industrial systems. His work centres on helping founders scale through commercial partnerships, industrial ecosystems, and cross-border expansion between Europe and Japan. Tomosaku is a Kauffman Fellow Class 31, a global leadership programme for venture capital investors and innovation leaders. Before co-founding NordicNinja, he gained experience in corporate strategy, venture investment, and cross-border financing at a Japanese government financial institution and its growth-stage investment fund, working at the intersection of public capital and private markets.

Viscount Trenchard is a former Co-Chair of the British-Japanese Parliamentary Group and one of the UK’s most experienced and knowledgeable experts on Japanese economics, culture, and politics. Hugh Trenchard began his career at Kleinwort Benson in 1973 and has more than 40 years’ experience in investment banking, including 35 years’ involvement with Japan, 12 of them as a resident. He ran Kleinwort Benson’s Japanese operations for 11 years and later served as Head of Japanese Investment Banking at Robert Fleming & Co. Limited before joining Mizuho International plc. He also served as a Senior Adviser for Japan and Korea at Prudential Financial Inc. He has contributed to bilateral relations in numerous capacities, including Director of the Japan Securities Dealers Association, Vice-chair of the European Business Community in Japan, Joint Chairman of Japan Society, and Managing Director of Mizuho International Limited.

Yuuichiro Nakajima is a Japanese national who spent part of his childhood and half of his adult life in the United Kingdom. He initially worked for a Japanese ODA execution agency before moving into investment banking in the City of London at S.G. Warburg in the 1980s and 1990s. Yuuichiro founded and manages his own M&A advisory boutique, Crimson Phoenix. In addition to chairing Japan H.L. Limited, he serves as a Non-Executive Director of Montanaro UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust PLC and as a Trustee of ICEED UK.