Professor Michael Goodman, King’s College, London

Professor Goodman is Professor of ‘Intelligence and International Affairs’ in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He has published widely in the field of intelligence history and scientific intelligence, including Spying on the Nuclear Bear: Anglo-American Intelligence and the Soviet Bomb (2008); Spinning Intelligence: Why Intelligence Needs the Media, Why the Media Needs Intelligence (2009); and Learning from the Secret Past: Cases in British Intelligence History (2011); The Routledge Companion to Intelligence Studies (2014) and Spying on the World: The Declassified Documents of the Joint Intelligence Committee (2014). He has also contributed articles to many academic journals.

Professor Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield, FBA

Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary History at Queen Mary, University of London and a Fellow of the British Academy. He spent his early career as political correspondent for the Times newspaper as a leader writer and Whitehall Correspondent, the Financial Times as its Westminster correspondent and the Economist. Lord Hennessy is the pre-eminent interpreter of the British constitution, cabinet government and intelligence communities. His many previous books include Cabinet (1986), Whitehall (1989), Never Again: Britain 1945-51 (1992), The Hidden Wiring: Unearthing the British Constitution (1995), The Prime Minister: The Office and Its Holders since 1945 (2000), The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War (2002), and Having it So Good: Britain In The Fifties (2006). His most recent book is Distilling The Frenzy: Writing The History Of One’s Own Times (2012).

Professor Sir David Omand, GCB

After a distinguished government career in defence, security and intelligence, David Omand is now one of the leading figures in shaping public debate on national security. He was the first appointee, in 2002, to the re-vamped post of UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, responsible for the UK’s national counter-terrorism strategy and ‘homeland security’. He spent much of his earlier career in the Ministry of Defence, including as Director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Deputy Secretary for Policy, Under Secretary in charge of the defence programme, and Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State. He also served for three years in Brussels as Defence Counsellor to NATO and for seven years on the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee. Sir David was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and is currently Visiting Professor at the War Studies Department, King’s College, London.

Lord Wilson of Dinton, GCB

Richard Wilson entered the Civil Service as an assistant principal in the Board of Trade in 1966. He subsequently served in a number of departments including 12 years in the Department of Energy where his responsibilities included nuclear power policy, the privatisation of Britoil, personnel and finance. He headed the Economic Secretariat in the Cabinet office under Mrs Thatcher from 1987-90 and after two years in the Treasury was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Department of the Environment in 1992. He became Permanent Under Secretary of the Home Office in 1994 and Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service from January 1998 until September 2002. He was Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 2002-12. He remains actively interested in the contribution of academic research to policy making.

Sir Iain Lobban

Iain was the Director of the UK’s largest intelligence and security agency, GCHQ, from mid 2008 to late 2014, having previously served as its Director General for Operations from 2004. This represented a period of over ten years’ leadership of operational delivery in contexts as varied as counter terrorism; cyber defence; support to the military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya; the prevention and detection of serious crime; and the development of an integrated service of intelligence and security. Cyber Security, both nationally and internationally, has been at the heart of his role in recent years. As the GCHQ Director he attended the UK’s National Security Council on a weekly basis from its very first meeting in May 2010 and was a Principal member of the Joint Intelligence Committee for over 6 years.