Vice Admiral Paul Martin Bennett, is a former senior

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

officer.

Naval career

Educated at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

, Bennett joined the

in 1985. He trained as a

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

before being given command the

minehunter A minehunter is a naval vessel that seeks, detects, and destroys individual naval mines. Minesweepers, on the other hand, clear mined areas as a whole, without prior detection of mines. A vessel that combines both of these roles is known as a ...

in 1998, the destroyer in 1999 and the destroyer in 2008. He became Commander Amphibious Task Group in May 2009, Commodore Naval Personnel Strategy in January 2011 and Director of the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre in February 2013. After that he became Chief of Staff at Joint Forces Command in September 2013 and Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Capability) and Controller of the Navy in May 2016. He was made Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces in November 2017, which was followed by appointment as Chief of Staff of NATO

Allied Command Transformation Allied Command Transformation (ACT) (French: ''Commandement allié Transformation'') is a military command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), formed in 2003 after restructuring. It was intended to lead military transformation of ...

in July 2018. He was succeeded by Vice Admiral Guy Robinson in September 2021, and subsequently retired in February 2022. Bennett was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the

2007 Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours 2007 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 17 June 2007, to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 2007.Antigua & Barbuda list: The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and ...

, and a

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in the

2016 Birthday Honours The 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as ...

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Paul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Royal Navy vice admirals Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Newcastle University Companions of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy personnel of the Iraq War