Peter Walker joined the Army in 1968, graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1970 to join the Corps of Royal Engineers. He had a variety of responsibilities in the Corps, ranging from combat and amphibious engineering to construction projects and surveying tasks. These duties took him to a large number of countries, including most European nations, the USA, Russia, the Caribbean, parts of South America and the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, East and South Africa, St Helena, Ascension Island, Cyprus and Hong Kong. He completed operational tours in Northern Ireland, as an infantry platoon commander and as an engineer, and more recently he has served in the former Yugoslavia. Peter Walker attended the Army Staff Course in 1982-83, subsequently being posted as a briefing officer to the Adjutant General. A tour in command of 14 Independent Topographic Squadron in Germany followed, after which he was posted to the Directorate General of Military Survey with responsibilities for operational requirements and procurement. In 1990 he was posted to the USA as the Senior Liaison Officer in the Defense Mapping Agency, after which a tour in Germany with NATO followed as the Chief Geographic Officer for the Northern Army Group and the Second Allied Tactical Airforce. From his NATO appointment he was seconded to the UN Headquarters in Zagreb for six months to set up the geographic support arrangements for the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR). In 1993 he returned to the UK to command 42 Survey Engineer Group, his unit being responsible for the provision of all deployable survey support to UK forces. During the four years he was in command, the Group supported various operations, the most extensive commitment being to Bosnia in 1996 as part of NATO’s Implementation Force (IFOR). In 1997 he was posted to MOD as the Assistant Director Intelligence (Geographic), responsible for the development of policy and strategic plans in the geographic area. In April 2000 Peter Walker became the first Chief Executive of the Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency (DGIA), a 1700 strong mixed tri-Service and Civil Service organisation formed from the merger of Military Survey and the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC), responsible for the provision of geospatial support and imagery intelligence for UK national and defence purposes. During his tour DGIA provided extensive support for all UK operations and counter terrorist activities, including both the provision of products and services and the deployment of service personnel and units, for operations in Afghanistan, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. Peter Walker has been extensively involved in the development of international standards for geospatial data, working both within NATO and as the UK national representative at the NATO and Partnership for Peace Geographic Conferences, and having been at various time the UK Technical Member, the Secretary and the Chairman of the Digital Geographic Information Working Group, a 23 nation organisation working very actively in this field. In June 2003 Peter Walker was appointed Director, Office for Standards of Casework (Army), spending his final two years in the Army responsible for the monitoring of disciplinary standards in the Army and for the administration of Courts Martial for the Army and the RAF. In April 2005 Peter Walker joined the Civil Service, returning to the Royal Engineers (Geographic) Specialisation as the Head of the Training Branch at the Joint Aeronautical & Geospatial Organisation, where he is responsible for the development and evaluation of geographic training. Peter Walker has an honours degree in civil engineering, is a graduate of the Army Staff Course having attended the technical (Division 1) and command elements, and has completed the Army Survey Course. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1990. In 2003 he was awarded the United States National Imagery & Mapping Agency Medallion for Excellence. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Chartered Management Institute and is a former Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is President of the Cold Ash & Hermitage Branch of the Royal British Legion, Chairman of the Defence Surveyors’ Association, Chairman of the Berkshire County Committee for the Army Benevolent Fund, a member of the Institution of Royal Engineers and the Royal Engineers (Geographic) Association, and a member and former chairman of the Chartered Surveyor/Sapper Club. Peter Walker is married to Lynne, and has one daughter, Claire, who was born in 1980 and is married to Captain Chris Jones REME. Peter Walker’s interests include rugby, orienteering, hill walking, gardening and exercising his Irish Wolfhound.