At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating on a national platform.
Gavin brings over 26 years of RAF experience to his role as a Defence Consultant, having worked across aircraft engineering, cyberspace engineering and, more recently, capability development. He’s experienced in helping clients understand complex challenges, shape practical solutions and ultimately deliver better Defence capability.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Coffee is definitely a must! I’ll usually let the dog out for a run, make a coffee and have a quick catch-up on the news before heading to the laptop. It’s a nice bit of routine before getting stuck into the day.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
There are quite a few things I’m proud of from my time in the RAF, but one that really stands out was taking the lead on ensuring an outgoing capability was kept in service when its replacement was running significantly late. We’d identified some resilience concerns with the interim solution, so retaining the existing capability helped ensure we could continue to provide reliable SATCOM and, most importantly, keep critical operations running without interruption.
Not the most glamorous achievement to explain at a dinner party, perhaps, but knowing the difference it made operationally is something I’m incredibly proud of.
What do you love most about what you do?
I love the variety that comes with working across such a broad range of Defence projects. Modern capabilities rarely exist in isolation, so I really enjoy spotting the links and dependencies between different projects and working with people across those areas to join the dots. I’m naturally a bit of a people person, so any job that involves talking to lots of different people and calling it work is a pretty good fit for me.
What does your typical working day look like?
Working on a hybrid and remote basis, most days start in my garden room office with a check of the diary, followed by emails and anything that might have cropped up overnight. From there, it really depends on what’s going on. There are usually plenty of different strands of work to get into, meetings and conversations with stakeholders, and inevitably something unexpected to keep things interesting!
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
I step away from the laptop. Usually that starts with wandering back to the house and making another coffee, but if I can, I’ll get outside for a walk, often with the dog. Fresh air and a bit of time away from the screen are seriously underrated. Even half an hour can be enough to clear my head, look at the problem differently and come back with a new idea. More often than not, whatever I was stuck on seems a lot easier afterwards. The dog hasn’t offered much in the way of Defence consultancy advice so far, but the thinking time definitely helps!
