Brigadier Paul Lynch

Commander UK’s National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence

Brigadier Paul Lynch MC assumed command of the UK’s National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI) on 16 Mar 20. His qualifications include a BA with honours in politics from Newcastle University and a master’s degree in defence studies from King’s College, London; he is also a graduate of the UK’s higher and advanced command and staff courses. He was awarded the Military Cross in 2003 during combat operations in Iraq. When not working, he tries to spend as much time as he can enjoying life with his wife and two children. Commissioned into the Royal Marines in 1996, he spent most of his early career in Commando units in a variety of command appointments, deployed on operations (Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan) and amphibious deployments worldwide.

His more interesting staff appointments have been as a staff officer in the British defence staff in Washington DC, the head of the amphibious warfare department within the staff of the UK’s amphibious task group and the military assistant to the Secretary of State for Defence (Philip Hammond). Between 2014-16, he commanded 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group Royal Marines, delivering information advantage and critical enablers to 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines. Promoted to Colonel in 2016, he was the deputy assistant chief of staff for Royal Navy commitments, reshaping its long-term operating schedule to account for a return to carrier-based operations. This was followed by an appointment as the chief of staff and deputy commander of the Joint Forces Intelligence Group. In 2019, he was the chief of staff for a comprehensive review of Defence Intelligence, a member of the subsequent programme implementation team, and was also briefly the director of Defence’s human intelligence capability before assuming command of NCGI.