Will Jessett CBE

Biography

Will took up the role of Director for Strategic Planning in MOD Head Office in September 2014. In this role he led MOD’s work on the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review and revision of the National Security Strategy. He is currently leading work on the Modernising Defence Programme.

Between 2010 and 2014 he worked as Minister (Defence Materiel) at the British Embassy in Washington DC, where he was responsible for all aspects of the UK-US defence relationship.

Will has degrees from Leicester and London Universities. He joined the MOD in 1985 and has held a series of policy, planning, operational and resource management positions. He has spent more than a third of his career working overseas (Namibia, Poland, Cyprus, USA), and several years working in operational delivery, crisis and financial management roles outside Whitehall.