Colonel Bob Stewart DSO
After being commissioned from Sandhurst in 1969 Bob Stewart was an infantry officer for the next 26 years. At various times he was an intelligence officer and company commander in Northern Ireland, a Sandhurst instructor, a staff officer in Military Operations within the MOD and Military Assistant (Lieutenant Colonel) to the Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee in Brussels. In March 1991 he assumed command of 1st Battalion the Cheshire Regiment. As Commanding Officer he was the first British Commander under United Nations command in Bosnia during 1992-93. On returning from Bosnia he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Promoted to Colonel he then took up the appointment of Chief of Policy at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe.
Bob Stewart left the British Army in September 1995 to become Senior Consultant in the Public Affairs and Corporate Policy Division of Hill & Knowlton (UK) Ltd. His specialisations there were Government Relations as well as Security, Crisis Management and Negotiation. Clients included the Governments of Egypt and Canada, AMEX, and the Paper Federation of Great Britain. In May 1998 he was appointed Managing Director of WorldSpace UK Ltd, a digital radio satellite broadcasting company that operates across the World. On the WorldSpace broadcasting system he set-up and ran the transmission of 21 radio stations internationally from London including CNN and BBC World Service. In October 2001 he left WorldSpace to be a freelance consultant – specialising in Leadership, Security, Intelligence, Motivation, Communications, Crisis Management, and Negotiation (including for hostage release) mainly for corporate clients. He chaired the 4-day Metropolitan Police Federation Conference on ‘Use of Lethal Force’ in October 2005.
In 2010 Bob ran for Parliament and was elected MP for Beckenham in Bromley. In Parliament Bob has been a member of the House of Commons Defence Committee and the Committees on Arms Control since he was elected. He has also been Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Army.
Bob Stewart’s book ‘Broken Lives’, about command during the Balkan War, sold well. He was the ITN News Channel Defence anchor during the last Gulf War. In 2004 he wrote and presented a 60 minute BBC film on ‘Military Principles in Business’. Stewart has written extensively for national newspapers on defence matters. Currently he is designing and presenting four, but possibly nine, TV programmes for Channel 5 Television called ‘The Negotiator’. A frequent commentator on security issues on TV and radio he has also been a ‘Talking Head’ for the Ministry of Defence for the last 9 years.
Bob Stewart has been Chairman of the Independent Defence Media Association, representing freelance British Defence and Security journalists, for 5 years. He holds a 1st Class Degree in International Politics and Strategy from the University of Wales (Aberystwyth) and is a fellow of Kingston University Business and Law School.
In 2010 Bob Stewart was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Beckenham in the London borough of Bromley in Kent