Ian King

Ian King joined Marconi in 1976 as a graduate entrant and qualified as an accountant two years later. He spent the next ten years in manufacturing at the company’s defence electronics manufacturing operations in Scotland and Portsmouth.

From 1986-92 Ian was Finance Director of Marconi Defence Systems, a business specialising in missiles, avionics, airborne radar and electronic warfare. There he introduced programme management and project reporting systems, which were adopted as the Marconi Electronic Systems standards.

Ian was the Finance Director of Marconi Electronic Systems from1992 to 1998, and controlled major acquisition and joint venture transactions, including Ferranti, Space, Sonar, Alenia Marconi Systems and the US acquisitions of Tracor and Hazeltine. During this period he was appointed a non-executive director of the Canadian Marconi company, a publicly quoted North American company, and director of Marconi’s two Anglo/French joint ventures in Space and Sonar.

Ian was the first Chief Executive of Alenia Marconi Systems, the joint venture between Marconi and Finmeccanica of Italy formed in December 1998. The main activities of this £1.2bn company were ground and naval radar, missiles systems, air traffic management, command and control, simulation and synthetic environments, engineering, software, systems design and manufacturing.

On completion of the British Aerospace / Marconi merger at the end of November 1999, Ian moved to the position of Group Strategy and Planning Director. There he reported to the Chief Executive and was responsible for development of the Group strategy, and the initial Strategic Business Plan for BAE Systems.

Ian was appointed to the post of Group Managing Director for Customer Solutions & Support (CS&S) at the start of 2001 responsible for growing a support and services business in the UK and international markets. CS&S supported customers' military capability in areas such as supply chain solutions and logistics management; spares; maintenance, repair and overhaul; upgrades; technical information services; training; facilities management; and manpower services.

In addition to leading the CS&S business, Ian was responsible for the integration of the Alvis business into a new Land Systems business following its acquisition in September 2004. This business has subsequently grown following further acquisitions and BAE Systems Land and Armaments is now a global leader in the industry.

On 1 January 2007 Ian was appointed as to the Board of Directors of BAE Systems plc and took up the position of Chief Operating Officer for the UK and Rest of World organisation, responsible for all UK and RoW businesses (excluding our US-led businesses).

The UK and Rest of the World organisation employs approximately 45.000 employees, across five operating groups including the Company’s joint ventures and Home Market Operations.

Following the retirement of Mike Turner, Ian was appointed Chief Executive with effect from 1 September 2008.

Ian is a non-executive director of Rotork plc, a world leader in the field of actuators, systems and services, for motorisation and manual operation of adaptions.

Ian is 52 and is married with one son. He lives in Portsmouth and is a lifetime supporter of Portsmouth Football Club. He enjoys a variety of ball sports, particularly golf, football and cricket.