Meet our speaker

Richard Deakin is the CEO of Stratospheric Platforms Ltd, a pioneering company developing a hydrogen-powered high-altitude platform for telecoms applications. Prior to this, he served as Global Head of Aerospace at PA Consulting and was CEO of NATS (the UK’s national Air Traffic Management organisation) from 2010 to 2015. Earlier in his career, Richard was Senior Vice President of the Air Systems Division at Thales Group, based in Paris, where he led the UK’s tactical military UAV programme — including operational deployment in Afghanistan. He has worked extensively across both civil and military drone programmes and Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) systems, and in 2016 was appointed to the UK Government’s Drone Industry Action Group. Richard brings over 30 years of leadership experience across major aerospace and defence programmes, having held senior roles at BAE Systems, TRW Aeronautical Systems, and GKN. A Chartered Engineer, he holds a first-class honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Kingston University and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Kingston University.