Defence
People Profile
Chief of Defence Materiel
General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue KCB CBE
Gen Sir Kevin O'Donoghue
Born on 9 December 1947, General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1968 on a Territorial Army commission while at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. In 1971, after some 2 years as a troop commander in 75 Engineer Regiment (Volunteers), he converted to a Regular Commission and spent the next 5 years in the British Army of the Rhine.
In 1976 he moved to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as a Company Instructor. He then attended the Canadian Forces Command and Staff Course in Toronto before being posted to the Ministry of Defence as Military Assistant to the Chief of the General Staff.
After a return to Germany to support 7th Armoured Brigade, he was appointed to the Army Staff Course as a member of the Directing Staff. His command of 25 Engineer Regiment included a 6-month deployment of the Regiment to the Falkland Islands.
He attended the Higher Command and Staff Course in 1990 and was then promoted Brigadier and assumed the appointment of Commander Corps Royal Engineers 1 (British) Corps (which became Chief Engineer Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps) and Commander Hameln Garrison.
In 1993 he attended the NATO Defence College in Rome, before moving to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe to take up the appointment of the Director of Staff Operations. He was promoted Major General in April 1996 on appointment as Chief of Staff, Headquarters Quartermaster General, following which he moved to the Ministry of Defence in London to become the Assistant Chief of the General Staff.
From there he was promoted Lieutenant General and became the United Kingdom’s Military Representative to NATO, the EU and WEU. He then served as Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Health), responsible for the Defence Medical Services, from 2002 to 2004.
On promotion to the rank of General he became the Chief of Defence Logistics on 1 January 2005. He held this post until the merger of the Defence Logistics Organisation with the Defence Procurement Agency on 2 April 2007 when he became the first Chief of Defence Materiel, responsible for delivering all aspects of the Defence Equipment and Support Plan.
This includes responsibility for MOD assets worth £76Billion and an annual operating budget of £16 billion. General O’Donoghue was Colonel of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment between 2001 and 2007. He is now the first Master General of Logistics.
He is married to Jean and they have 3 daughters. In his spare time he enjoys dog walking, reading military history and tending his vegetable patch.
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