Damien Oliver

Biography

Damien Oliver was appointed interim Chief Executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) in October 2022.

Damien is a Chartered Project Professional through the Association of Project Managers with experience in project delivery that spans nearly twenty years. Damien started his career in the Civil Service in 2001 and has held a range of project delivery roles.

He joined the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Aviation team in 2007 where his first task was to project manage the delivery of brand-new Coastguard helicopters.

Between February 2013 and April 2015, Damien was the Business Change Manager for the UK Search and Rescue Helicopter Programme. Following this, Damien was responsible for aviation in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). He managed the implementation of a £1.9bn search and rescue helicopter service that has saved the lives of over 6,000 people since operations began in April 2015.

Damien was appointed Commercial and Programmes Director in February 2018, accountable for a £230m annual programme budget and a £70m annual capital budget. He is also the Senior Responsible Owner for three major programmes; the £2.2bn Second Generation Aviation Search and Rescue Programme (UKSAR2G) which will replace the current fleet of Coastguard helicopters and planes, the Radio Network Infrastructure Replacement (RNIR) Programme which will replace the Coastguard’s current radio network infrastructure and IT infrastructure, and the Blue Light Technical Transformation (BLLT) Programme for the replacement of all the technology that enables His Majesty’s Coastguard to do its job.