Martin Neill was a nonresident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Forward Defense practice. After a twenty-year career in the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense—where he rose to the rank of senior civil servant—which ended in 2012, Neill has continued to provide assistance to governments around the world on defense reform policy, capability-based planning, technology, acquisition management, and strategic planning.
From 2009 to 2012 Martin was a defense diplomat at the British Embassy in Washington, DC. In this role, Martin was responsible for the strategy and acquisition of capability and equipment from the United States for the British Armed Forces. His advice on capability planning and acquisition strategies greatly influenced the procurement of both the UK and US defense departments. He played a key role in securing Congressional approval for the UK-US Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty and its subsequent implementation.
Neill was a director of the Ministry of Defense in London from 2007 to 2009. There he was responsible for the analysis, strategy, and delivery of research for countering terrorism, supporting the UK Special Forces, Countering-IEDs, and providing rapid solutions to the frontline in Afghanistan. Through his leadership and use of innovative approaches, new technologies were brought to the frontline in months instead of years. During this time, Martin was also involved in UK Cross-Government Counter Terrorism efforts and the planning of security for the 2012 London Olympics.
From 2003 to 2007, Martin was the first British civilian on exchange to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) in the Pentagon, where he held a number of key leadership roles. Within OSD Program Analysis and Evaluation, he provided the Director with advice on capability-based planning and a detailed capability analysis of programs on record to be cancelled or reprogrammed, saving over $500 million. Martin then went on to lead the OSD (Policy) integration team for the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review for which he was awarded the OSD medal for exception public service – only the second UK national to have ever received such a prestigious award. Finally, as special adviser to the under secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics for eighteen months, he provided analytic, evidence-based advice on rationalizing maintenance facilities across the United States and numerous procurement decisions.