Captain Phil Burrell joined the Royal Navy in September 1982, having graduated from Edinburgh University with a BSc(Hons) in Mathematics earlier the same year. His early career included service in HMS COLLINGWOOD and at sea as the Squadron Instructor Officer to the 8th Frigate Squadron, during which time he completed a 5-month Gulf deployment in HMS SCYLLA.

He completed the 9-month duration Minewarfare and Clearance Diving Officer’s Course, serving subsequently as the Operations Officer of the Hunt Class Mine Counter-Measures Vessel, HMS MIDDLETON.

Having qualified as a Saturation Diver, he served as instructor within the Royal Navy’s School of Maritime Operations (SMOPS) before joining Britannia Royal Navy College as a member of the training staff. He then completed the penultimate Royal Navy Staff Course at Greenwich before commencing a 2-year Loan Service posting as the Training Commander of the Royal Navy of Oman’s Training Centre. During this appointment, he was awarded the Sultan of Oman’s Commendation Medal.

On return to the UK in March 1998, he became the Senior Appointer and Branch Manager for officers of the Engineer (Training Management) and Engineer(Information Systems) specialisations and for ratings of the Education and Training Support Branch. His final appointment as a Commander allowed him to establish a new post within the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency as the Desk Officer responsible for the Royal Navy’s Individual Training Strategy and Policy.

Promoted to Captain in June 2002, he attended the Senior Officer’s Course at the NATO Defence College in Rome before joining SHAPE as the Branch Chief responsible for manpower and organisational issues across the newly created Allied Command Operations (ACO). In April 2005, he commenced a short duration appointment as the Deputy United Kingdom National Military Representative based at SHAPE before spending 2006 in New Delhi as the United Kingdom’s sole representative on the 46th Indian National Defence College course. In January 2007 he became the Director of Training of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre (DISC) with responsibility for the development and delivery of DISC’s intelligence training output across its 4 geographically separated training delivery schools. After a very short period as the MOD liaison Officer to MetrixUK, he commenced his current role in January 2010.