John Stokoe CB CBE
John
is
a former Major General in the British Army. He
joined the Army as a 15 year old Army Apprentice in 1963
and commissioned from Sandhurst in 1968. During his
service he held wide ranging, diverse and demanding
posts: in his first 10 years he served with Gurkha
soldiers in Malaya, Hongkong and Nepal, carried out 3
operational tours in Northern Ireland with the infantry
and the police Special Branch, and attended the Army
Staff College. Operational service in the Falkland
Islands and the Persian Gulf preceded a number of senior
posts which included logistic staff tours, command of
his branch of the Army in Germany and director of world
wide Army policy in the MOD. He retired from the
Army in the rank of Major General in 1999 at the age of
51. His final post was Deputy Commander in Chief
and Commander of the Field Army. In this role he
was responsible for all operational collective training
and the operational effectiveness of the British Army.
He was appointed MBE in 1982, CBE in 1991 and CB in
1999.
Since
leaving
the Army, John has created a second career in business.
In the Amey support services group he managed strategic
development for the Defence division from 1999 to 2002.
He then joined the Lend Lease Corporation,
initially as head of Defence strategy but latterly as
Director of Corporate Affairs and Marketing for Lend
Lease Europe and the Middle East.
In
November
2006 he joined the BT Group as Director Defence and
Security. In October 2009 he was appointed MD BT
National Government, subsequently retiring to pursue the
next stage of his business career in 2011.
John currently has a number of positions:
non executive Chairman of Debut Services Ltd, the joint
venture between Lend Lease and Babcock Infrastructure
Services, managing the MOD’s single living accommodation
modernization programme (Project SLAM); Chairman of the
Regular Forces Employment Association; Chairman of
Systematic (UK) Ltd; non executive director with the
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust; non executive advisor to
the National Security and Resilience division of Thales.
He also provides mentoring and coaching to senior board
directors and lectures extensively on business
leadership in complex environments. He has published a
number of papers on leadership and the creation and
development of business partnerships.