Graham Cundy OBE, QCB ×

Graham Cundy served 25 years in the Royal Marines, twenty of which have been spent as a senior oﬃcer providing specialist National Security advice. He is currently the director of Oxford Research and Analysis an international consultancy specialising in strategic advice on cross multi-jurisdictional issues. He has experience at executive board level, as an NED to a technology company and as as a fellow of the international think tank the London based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Commissioned into the Royal Marines in 1985 he has held a variety of Regimental and Staﬀ appointments and volunteered for Special Duties in 1989 from where he then served the majority of what was a most eventful military career.

In 2001, he conducted operations in Afghanistan with the Northern Alliance immediately in the wake of the 9/11 attack in New York before serving as the Planning Oﬃcer in the US Central Command in Tampa, during the build up to the Iraq War. He assumed the role of Operations Oﬃcer of a theatre entry unit in 2002, with responsibilities for the execution of operations in Iraq as well as the Balkans, South America, the Caribbean and domestic Counter Terrorism. He was awarded the MBE by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth in 2004. He was appointed an OBE in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for his notable work whilst commanding the military units in conflict zones.

Before founding Oxford Research and Analysis, Graham worked as a Senior Director within a leading global business intelligence company focussing on fraud investigation. He has a been engaged in providing geo-political analysis and risk mitigation and the delivery of over a dozen discreet capability and capacity building projects in support of other Government Departments throughout his career, including capability training packages for overseas intelligence agencies. Graham has been involved as a lecturer with the John Smith Trust as part of their Eastern European and Middle East outreach programme delivering Governance, Security, and Justice Reform; and Conflict Prevention, Stabilisation, and Peace building.

Within the Middle East he has been the architect for, and provides operational oversight of a large scale 4 year multi million-pound capacity and capability building project for police transformation. He has delivered commercial projects providing specialist national security sector reform within South America and the Caribbean and delivered counter extremism projects on behalf of the Cabinet Oﬃce.

Graham is an alumni of the Manchester Business school, has an MA from King’s College London, is a lapsed Arabic speaker and his French and Spanish is even worse but is suﬃcient to get him out of a tight scrape. He has a number of interests outside of work including coaching rugby for Bath Academy and remains involved in charity work. He lives in rural Somerset with his wife and two children and has a penchant for bonfires.