New York, USA - April 19, 2010, New York, USA - McKinney Rogers, a business consultancy, announced the appointment of Sir Robert Fry KCB, CBE to the position of executive chairman.
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Lieutenant General Sir Robert Alan Fry KCB, CBE is the Regional Vice President of HP Defence & Security, he also has additional responsibility for the Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa elements of the HP global business. He holds board positions in New York, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, is a member of the Royal United Services Institute executive council and a trustee of Help for Heroes.
Before joining HP, Sir Robert completed a military career which included posts at the highest level of strategic direction and deployed command. After taking a degree in economics at the University of Bath and working for a period in commerce in New York, his early career was spent largely at regimental and special duties (Mentioned in Despatches, MBE).
Attendance at the Army Staff College was followed by tours in the MoD and Directorate of Special Forces, a sequence punctuated in the 1986/7 academic year when he studied for an MA in War Studies at King's College London.
In 1989, Sir Robert was appointed COS, HQ 3 Commando Brigade and subsequently took part in Op Haven in Northern Iraq. This was followed by a return to the MoD before taking command of 45 Commando Group. In 1997, in the rank of brigadier, he became the Director Naval Staff in the MoD, after which he took over command of 3 Commando Brigade and deployed to Kosovo (CBE).
Sir Robert was appointed Commandant General Royal Marines in 2001; a year later he took up the new and concurrent job of Commander United Kingdom Amphibious Forces, in which capacity he deployed as the UK Maritime Component Commander for operations in the Gulf, completing a novel double of command of both land and maritime forces at formation level.
Sir Robert assumed the post of Chief of Staff at the PJHQ in May 2002 and remained in the job throughout the planning for and conduct of operations against Iraq. He took over the job of Director of Operations in the MoD in July 2003 (KCB) which was followed by a final operational tour as Deputy Commanding General of coalition forces in Iraq (US Legion of Merit). ■