Sir David Omand was the first holder in 2002 of the post of UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator. He was the Government’s chief crisis manager for civil contingencies. Over the same period he led for the Prime Minister an interdepartmental initiative to improve standards of risk management. He spent much of his career in the Ministry of Defence, including as Deputy Secretary for Policy, as Under Secretary in charge of the defence programme, and as Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State. He served for seven years on the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee.  He is currently Visiting Professor at the War Studies Department, King's College, London and a regular speaker and writer on the ethical dimension of leadership, on counter-terrorism and on the use of scientific method in intelligence assessment.