Richard William Currie CBE

Richard Currie was a career officer in the British Army, commissioned into the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars in 1978.  His last appointment before leaving the military at the end of 2011 was as the British Defence Attaché to Colombia.

During his 3 years in Bogota he provided a programme of support to the Colombian Ministry of Defence in the implementation of a Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Policy within the Armed Forces and brought together an inter-agency commission for a national humanitarian landmine clearance programme. In his earlier career, Richard served in Germany, Cyprus and Northern Ireland.

After graduating from Staff College, Richard had a number of appointments both in the Army General Staff and the Defence Policy and Operations Staffs.  In 1994 he spent a year with the UN Observer Mission on the Kuwait – Iraq border as the Senior Operations Officer and in 2003, whilst serving on the MOD’s Strategic Planning Group, he was deployed to Iran as Chief of Defence Staff’s Liaison Officer during the initial occupation of Iraq. On becoming Defence Attaché to Jordan in 2004, Richard planned and led a bilateral programme to support the Jordanian Armed Forces in a comprehensive modernization programme and, at the request of HM the King, planned and organized the deployment of a Jordanian Army contingent to come under UK command in Afghanistan.

After leaving the military, Richard became a Business Development Associate of the Thales Group in which he provided strategic insight into potential export markets and provided corporate liaison with the UK’s Department for Trade and Investment. Richard is single and enjoys travel and photography.  In his 25-year-old Land Rover he has travelled some 45 countries.  He is also a Trustee of his regiment, The Queen’s Royal Hussars, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and member of the Royal United Services Institute.