Our President
The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE, is Her Majesty’s representative in Greater London and is charged with upholding the dignity of the Crown. Across the thirty-two Boroughs (but not the City of London) he is responsible for the promotion of civic, commercial, voluntary and social activities within London and thus is part of the fabric of London in all its manifestations.
Born in Nottingham and educated in State schools and Cambridge University, Sir Ken has worked at IBM and Wang after which he founded 2 technology merchant banks.
His business career has included serving as the first British-born black director of an FTSE-100 company (Reuters) and on the Boards of major companies including Open Text, ENRC, Huawei (UK) and Nigeria’s Interswitch.
His charitable passions include being President of London homeless charity Thames Reach (for which he received an OBE), Chair of welfare to work charity Shaw Trust, the founding Chair of the Aleto Foundation, and supporting future leaders from tough reality backgrounds.
In the past, he has served as a Governor of the Peabody Trust and a Director of the West Lambeth NHS Trust.
His wider public service roles have included inaugural membership of the Postal Services Commission and IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority).
In 2015 Her Majesty the Queen appointed Sir Ken as her Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London – the first British-born black Lord-Lieutenant in the role’s 500-year history.
He was knighted in the 2018 New Year’s Honours for services to business and philanthropy.
Our Chairman
AVM Ranald Munro was appointed as Commandant General Royal Auxiliary Air Force (CG RAuxAF) in September 2019 and in addition Chief of Staff Reserves (COS Reserves) in July 2020.
A career Reservist, he joined the 10th Battalion The Parachute Regiment in December 1986 and having served for a year as a private soldier was commissioned into the Battalion from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1988. Having served in several appointments at Regimental Duty he was appointed Battalion Second in Command in 1996 and subsequently attended the TA Command and Staff Course in 1997. Promoted to Lt Col in 1998, he was posted as Chief Instructor to the London District Specialist Training Team (LDSTT).
AVM Munro received his Territorial Decoration in 1999. He was awarded the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal (VRSM) in 2009, a Clasp in 2014 and a 2nd in 2019.
Having completed his tour at the LDSTT he was posted to Headquarters London District for a year as SO1 Operations and Training TA and commanded Bristol University Officers’ Training Corps between April 2002 and August 2004.
Prior to his promotion to Colonel and taking up his appointment in October 2005 as Col TA at the Directorate of Individual Training (Army), AVM Munro served as the Chief of Military Operations (Op Law) in the Multi-National Coalition HQ’s Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in Baghdad, Iraq on OP TELIC 6 between May 2005 and October 2005.
Between April 2008 and January 2009, he served as Deputy Commander 43 (Wessex) Brigade followed by a posting to the MOD as Colonel (Reserves) on the General Staff in January 2009.
On promotion to Brigadier, he was appointed Assistant Commander of the 4th Division in November 2009, and subsequently Assistant Commander of Support Command upon its formation. He is a member of The Royal College of Defence Studies, having attended the 2010 course. In 2012 he was promoted to Major General and appointed Deputy Commander of Land Forces (Reserves) in October 2012 – at that time the British Army Reserve’s most senior appointment, serving until October 2015. He was awarded his CBE in 2014.
In April 2016 he was appointed Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets), a tri-service appointment – Defence’s senior Reserve appointment.
He is a Trustee of the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Charity, an Elder of the Parachute Regiment, a former Honorary Colonel 4 PARA, currently Honorary Colonel of Bristol University Officers Training Corps, Regimental Colonel The London Scottish Regiment, Honorary Colonel of SE Sector Army Cadet Force, Chairman of the Greater London Reserve Forces and Cadet Association (GL RFCA), a member of the Surrey Committee of SE RFCA. He is a Freeman of the City of London, Lieutenant of the City of London, Chairman of Trustees of the First Aid and Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), an ambassador of the Defence Medical Welfare Services, Chairman of the Military in Law Network (MiLNet), and is a Vice President (past Chairman) of The Caledonian Club in Belgravia, London. He was appointed DL for Greater London in January 2019.
AVM Munro is a barrister in civilian life and is a General Counsel and Company Secretary for financial services companies in the City of London. He is married to Louise and they have two children. His main recreational interests are golf, tennis and flying. He is a holder of both a single-engine and multi-engine fixed-wing private pilot’s licence. He has recently taken up freefall parachuting!