Simon Lister (Royal Navy officer)

Educated at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Lister joined the Royal Navy in 1978. He became the marine engineer officer of the submarine Odin in 1986. He went on to be marine engineer officer of Torbay and then Trenchant in 1993. He became Naval Assistant to the Chief Executive of the Ship Support Agency in 1994 and, after attending the London Business School in 1996, he became Director, Naval Plans at the Ministry of Defence in 1997 and then naval attaché in Moscow in 2001.[1]

Lister became head of the team responsible for phase one of the internal restructuring programme at the Defence Logistics Organisation in 2004.[2] He went on to be Commander, HM Naval Base Plymouth in 2005, Senior Naval Member on the Directing Staff at the Royal College of Defence Studies in April 2008[3] and Director, Submarines in 2009.[4] Lister became Chief of Materiel (Fleet) and Chief of Fleet Support with promotion to the rank of vice admiral in December 2013.[3] In May 2017, he was appointed as interim head of the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) and given the title of Chief of Materiel (Submarines).[5]

Lister was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2001 Birthday Honours,[6] Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2013 New Year Honours,[7] and Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2017 Birthday Honours.[8]

In August 2017 Lister took a sabbatical from his Royal Navy Career to lead the Aircraft Carrier Alliance.[9] Lister retired from active service of the navy on 25 October 2019.[10]