Honourary Research Fellows
Mark Laity is a widely respected expert on Strategic Communications and a key leader in its development within NATO where his nickname was ‘Mr StratCom’. He has been involved with the media, information & Strategic Communication for more than four decades, both as a journalist, mostly with the BBC, & then in senior posts within NATO.
From 2007 until 2017, he was the Chief Strategic Communications (StratCom) at SHAPE, the first holder of the post. This followed the first of three tours of Afghanistan, for which he was awarded NATO’s Meritorious Service Medal. He joined NATO in 2000 as Special Adviser to then Secretary General of NATO, Lord Robertson, and the Alliance’s Deputy Spokesman. This followed 22 years in journalism, mostly in the BBC, notably 11 years as the BBC's Defence Correspondent. A graduate of the University of York, in 2020 the university awarded him an Honorary Doctorate (DUniv). He is also an Associate Fellow at the King’s Centre for Strategic Communications, Kings College London.
Mark is now Senior Director of the StratCom Academy. He is also a British Army reservist with 77 Brigade.
Professor Jamie Shea CMG is Professor at the College of Europe Natolin. He is also a Senior Fellow responsible for security and defence programmes at Friends of Europe and a Senior Advisor with the European Policy Centre. Both of these think tanks are based in Brussels. More recently, Jamie Shea has assumed the position of Senior Counsel to the Founder and CEO of Fanack/The Chronicle and Fanack Water.
Between 2018 and 2022 Jamie Shea was Professor of Strategy and Security at the University of Exeter and prior to that, for 38 years he was an international public servant and a member of the International Staff of NATO. His last NATO post was Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges. Other positions included Director of Policy Planning in the Private Office of the Secretary General, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for External Relations, Public Diplomacy Division, Director of Information and Press and Spokesman of NATO.
Senior Research Fellows
Professor Susanne Braun is Professor in Leadership at Durham University Business School and Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research of the Faculty of Business. She is the Principal Investigator of the grant Leadership Identity Dynamics in Work and Beyond: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Intervention funded by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI). She received her PhD (2011) and Habilitation (2017) in Psychology from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany. She held posts at TUM School of Management and visiting scholarships at New York University and the University of California in Berkeley before joining Durham University in 2015.
Prof Braun has published in outlets such as Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, The Leadership Quarterly, British Journal of Management, Human Resource Management, Journal of Business Ethics, and the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. She received the Emerald Citation of Excellence and The Leadership Quarterly's Highly Cited Research Award in 2016. She is Associate Editor (Organizational Psychology) of Frontiers in Psychology and Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Organizational Behavior and the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Warrant Officer Class One Paul Carney MBE was born in November 1979 in Gosport and joined the Army in January 1997 as a combat engineer and electrician in the Royal Engineers. He has exercised around the world and operated in Macedonia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
WO1 Carney’s Junior and Senior Non-Commissioned Officer roles were spread between close support armoured engineering and general support engineering. As a Quartermaster Sergeant Instructor, he taught Troop Commanders and Sergeants Combat Engineering specialising on Demolitions and Bridging at the Royal Engineer Warfare Wing. He was the Squadron Sergeant Major of 20 Field Squadron, 36 Engineer Regiment as it transitioned to a Route Proving and Clearance role.
After serving as Regimental Sergeant Major at 22 Engineer Regiment WO1 Carney has since served as 3rd (United Kingdom) Division Command Sergeant Major, the Field Army Command Sergeant Major and as a student on the Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land). In July 2021 he was appointed the 3rd British Army Sergeant Major.
He is married to Kathryn with two children: Nicole and Ethan. He has a BA (Hons) in Leadership and Management and is currently studying at master’s level. He enjoys CrossFit, running, kayaking and adventure training.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2024-2028)
Dr Munish Chauhan MBBS, MRCS, PgDip, RAMC moved to the UK from India at the age of 17 and he is currently serving in the RAMC as a Surgical Registrar. In 2007, Munish joined the British Army as a CMT, serving with 22 Field Hospital. As a JNCO, he was assigned as a squadron medic with 49 Sqn (EOD) of 33 Engineers Regiment. In 2011, Munish started his medicine degree from St. George's University, London and subsequently re-joined the Army as a Medical Officer. He has various clinical publications to his name. Throughout his military career, Munish has deployed, both within the UK and abroad, providing essential medical support in locations such as Kenya, Cyprus, Germany, and Estonia.
Munish has a passion for coaching and mentoring, and he regularly lends his expertise to medical staff. As a guest speaker, Munish has presented and received awards from PGIMER, Chandigarh and Panjab University, Chandigarh in India. His community work and leading the charity events, has earned him recognition at the House of Parliament and by community leaders. Munish's media appearances, on television and radio, serve as a source of inspiration for young Indians contemplating careers in the British Armed Forces.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Dr Tess Morris-Paterson BSc MSc PhD CSci is a chartered scientist who started her career in elite and professional sport. This included the Premier League, Women’s Super League, Formula One, tennis and golf, before the role of head of performance in Olympic and Paralympic sport. Tess transferred this experience to astronauts, where she studied the human effects of microgravity for her doctorate. This led her to work at NASA GeneLab, who investigate space-related genetic changes, and International Space University. She now has a business that specialises in the selection of astronauts, and is a Reservist Officer in 135 Geographic Sqn (42 Engineer Regiment).
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Professor Alexander Evans OBE FRHistS is based at the London School of Economics. He is a former Henry Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress, Senior Fellow at Yale, and Gwilym Gibbon Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford. A career member of the diplomatic service, he has also worked in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office. He has served as Deputy and Acting High Commissioner to India and (briefly) Pakistan, led the UN Security Council expert group on Daesh, Al Qaida and the Taliban, and was a senior advisor in the U.S. Department of State.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Langley Sharp MBE is the former head of the Centre for Army Leadership, responsible for championing leadership excellence across the British Army. Having himself graduated from Sandhurst two decades ago, his career in the Parachute Regiment, which included operational command at every rank, saw him deployed to Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Among his many varied roles, he led a counter-
insurgency Task Force operation, commanded a Parachute Regiment Battalion and delivered the Ministry of Defence’s training programme for the London 2012 Olympics venue security, for which he was awarded an MBE. He is the author of the British Army’s official account of leadership, 'The Habit of Excellence' , distilling over three centuries of the Army’s experience in the art, science and practice of leadership.
The breadth of Langley’s life experiences has fostered in him a steadfast belief in the potential of people. As an executive coach and leadership consultant, working with executives and senior leadership teams across the private and public sectors, his passion is to help unleash this potential. Langley is the Founder and Director of the consultancy firm Frontier Leadership.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2024-2028)
Donna Verdi is a highly accomplished Head of Talent and Development; Chartered Fellow of CIPD and LPI. She has worked for 23 years within the financial services industry spearheading successful initiatives to drive organizational effectiveness, leadership development, talent management and cultural transformation. She has successfully collaborated with strategic partners, influenced senior leaders and led diverse teams to produce impactful, leadership, management and cultural transformation programmes that drive a long-term leadership and organisational impact.
Her most recent leadership development programme was recognised for a gold award in Leadership Development by Brandon Hall. She is an accredited MBTI, Hogan and Insights practitioner.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Dr Alexandra Thorp graduated from Canterbury Christ-Church University with a BA(Ed) Hons in English and primary education in 1996. She progressed to headship within five years and enjoyed a successful 20-year career as a headteacher. Much of this career was spent working for Service Children’s Education overseas, with postings in Germany, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands. During this time, Alexandra worked with military leaders and members of the civilian command, building her knowledge of leadership across a wide range of fields.
After receiving a MA (Ed) with distinction in leadership and management, Alexandra continued to develop her interest and expertise in leadership development. She has delivered lectures and seminars on effective leadership including the development of women in leadership roles. In 2021, she completed a Professional Doctorate with a focus on the impact of gender on leadership identity and career progression. Alexandra’s research looked at the social conditioning of individuals and how gender performativity impacts on leadership identity at all levels.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Major Simon Lash enlisted into the Army in 1996 as a soldier in the Adjutant General’s Corps. In Oct 2019 he was selected for commission, commissioning in Dec 2020. A leadership enthusiast he delivered Command, Leadership and Management Training to newly promoted NCO’s and has written leadership insights on Followership and Coaching as a Leader. He is a co-founder of the Staff and Personnel Support’s Coaching and Mentoring Network which has the aim of promoting coaching and mentoring throughout the Branch.
So far, the Network has created over 50 mentoring pairings, delivered briefs over the UK and established a reward and recognition scheme for coaching and mentoring. Major Lash is a keen military historian, specialising in the War of 1812 and Normandy, in particular the work of the Royal Army Pay Corps. His philosophies are leadership flows through followership and providing practical advice on applying leadership at the team level.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Colonel Matthew Ketterer (Matt) was born in Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire and was educated at Ipswich School in Suffolk. Following a BA (Hons) in Russian & Serbian from the University of Nottingham, he commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and into the Educational & Training Services (ETS) in December 2000. Most recent appointments include Command of East Midlands UOTC and ETS (South); Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Interior (Afghanistan); NATO’s Head of the Professional Military Education and Training Division in Iraq; and DACOS Education/Branch Colonel for the ETS.
Matt is currently Head of Profession for the ETS and is on full-time Arabic language training in preparation for his Defence Attaché deployment to North Africa. Matt is a qualified teacher, CELTA trained, has an MSc in Training Management & Consultancy, an MA in Defence Studies and completed a Fellowship at The University of Oxford in 2022. He has a personal and professional interest in leadership development and character education and considers himself extremely lucky to have spent a career principally employed to make others better.
CAL Senior Research Fellow (2023-2027)
Past CAL Fellows
- Dr Victoria Carr, 2022-2026
- Sarah Chapman Trim, 2022-2026
- Dr Mary Hunter, 2022-2024
- Dr Chris Kempshall, 2022-2026
- Dr Gabriel Morin, 2022-2026
- Maj. Gavin Paton, 2022-2026
- Scott Sheriff, 2022-2024
Contact the team
Want to find out more or apply to become a Fellow of the Centre for Army Leadership and help support leaders of the future, then get in touch using the email address below.
Email: [email protected]