General (Ret’d) Sir John Reith, KCB, CBE
- Chairman of Governors
Prior to his retirement from the British Army in 2008, General Sir Reith played an integral role in various NATO and EU operations. He is now the Lead Senior Mentor for NATO.
He was educated at Eliots Green Grammar School and Sandhurst, before being commissioned into The Parachute Regiment in 1969. In 1997, he was appointed Commander of Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land) and commanded a multinational force of 7,000 troops in Albania during the Kosovo crisis in 1999. 2001 saw him become Chief of Joint Operations at the Permanent Joint Headquarters. For this he had operational command of all British Forces deployed on operations outside of the UK, including operations in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. He was involved directly in collapsing the Taleban and Saddam Regimes.
From 2004 – 2007 he was Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and was responsible for strategic development of operations, force generation, the exercise programme, strategic coordination with the EU and command of EU operations under the Berlin Plus arrangement. In 2004 he set up and commanded the EU operation in Bosnia, which took over security responsibility from NATO.
He was awarded the OBE in 1989, the CBE in 1991, the CB in 2000 and was knighted in 2003. He became a Governor in 2008.
(back)
