Alison Ballard is the Head of Audit at BAE Systems plc, a Greater Lincolnshire LEP Board Director, and Deputy Chair of the LEP Defence and Security Board. She joins us to talk about the huge opportunity this sector offers the Lincolnshire economy and her hopes for using defence as a force for good.

After working as an engineer at Airbus UK, Alison joined BAE Systems in 2010, based at RAF Coningsby. She then held various engineering and maintenance roles in her career journey, supporting the Typhoon and Tornado forces. Alison rose to be the director for the UK Typhoon support programme. She has now moved on to a central cross-sector role, and is Head of Audit.

“Defence comes in many shapes and sizes,” explains Alison. "With new technologies including cyber-warfare, drone and swarm capabilities evolving, whilst ships, aircraft, and infantry remain fundamental”.

But the sector reaches much more widely than that with SMEs contributing over £4.5m of unique customer focus and agility to the defence supply chain. From technology to software to R&D, equipment and infrastructure to support services, these businesses are the backbone of much of the UK Defence and Security sector. The impact of defence spending can be felt in every region across the UK which supports 260,000 UK jobs and nearly £20 billion investment into UK industries every year.

“I’m proud to do business in this region which has such a long and great RAF heritage,” says Alison. “The UK defence sector is a national success story. The UK is a world leader in defence capability, supporting our armed forces, allies, and partners. Here in Lincolnshire it is greatly felt, as it is integrated into our communities and businesses.”

Over the last few months, the LEP has been building a Defence and Security Board to develop and grow this sector across Lincolnshire and is made up of public and private sector leaders working in the defence sector. There are at least 80 companies in Lincolnshire employing up to 12,000 people working in the sector, with many more employed in directly or indirectly in the armed forces - particularly the RAF. “We have strong groupings in many locations around Lincoln, Waddington, Sleaford, and Coningsby”, explains Alison. "As well as businesses in Scunthorpe, Grimsby, and Grantham. We also have more RAF personnel relocating into Lincolnshire over the next few years.”

The ambition of the Defence and Security Board is to develop a competitive network of defence and security businesses, which the LEP aims to launch in September. “We aspire to grow this to a scale that we can bid to the MOD’s DASA [Defence and Security Accelerator], to make our network a recognised partner for innovation for the MOD,” says Alison.

The Defence Sector can create rewarding, highly skilled jobs, and attract investment. It makes a significant contribution to the UK skills base by being one of the nation’s largest employer of apprentices, and has a positive impact of defence on UK science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) capability.

“I am a keen to promote careers in my sector, across all STEM subjects, to everyone from young people to career returners. There are huge opportunities for very rewarding and well-paid work, with global travel potential. I believe strongly that we can create a brighter future together, despite the global challenges,” continues Alison.

“We have a specific opportunity to promote business here. We are located close to the end user and operator. We want to strip away barriers and connect SMEs with primes and the MOD more quickly, and we are working hard with public and private sector leaders, and academia, to achieve this.”

Alison Ballard

BAE Systems