Derek retired from full time academic work in 1994 on medical grounds, and is now a part time consultant, teacher, visiting professor and international lecturer. Formerly, he held the British Aerospace Chairs in Systems Science and in Command and Control, Cranfield University at RMCS Shrivenham. Prior to that he held the Chair in Engineering Management at City University, London.
Derek started as a Cranwell apprentice and retired as a wing commander from the Royal Air Force after 22 years, to join industry. His first industry appointments were as the System Design Manager of the Tornado F3 Avionics, Technical Co-ordinator for UKAIR CCIS, and UK Technical Director for the NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS) project in Brussels. He subsequently held posts in two leading systems engineering companies as Marketing Director, Business Development Director and Technical Director before becoming an academic in 1988.
He inaugurated the IEE’s PG M5 — Systems Engineering. He also started the UK Chapter of INCOSE and was its inaugural president. The main body of INCOSE has recently awarded him "Pioneer" status, the first non-US citizen to receive the award; more recently he has become an INCOSE Fellow. He has been elected as UK Charter Member of the Omega-Alpha Association - the International Honor Society for Systems Engineering. He has been active in consultancy, notably with defence aerospace organizations and for the UK police services, and recently as a guest lecturer on systems engineering, where he usually manages to introduce his hobbies of astronomy and Egyptology.
His current research is into system thinking, system requirements, social psychology & anthropology, Egyptology, command & control, system design and world class systems engineering. He published his first book, "Putting Systems to Work", John Wiley & Sons, in 1992, has completed an e- book, "Getting to Grips with Complexity," which develops an alternative to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, for Open Systems. He co-authored the IEE’s "Guide to the Proper Practice of Systems Engineering," and has published "Advanced Systems Thinking, Engineering and Manage-ment," Artech House, 2003.
From over 20 years of research, he has developed what appears to be the first complete Systems Methodology – the "how" of systems engineering - which has been the Holy Grail of systems engineering for half a century or more. And, not surprisingly, perhaps, that has resulted in his latest book Systems Engineering: A 21st Century Systems Methodology, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2007/2008, in their Systems Engineering and Management Series...
Professional Qualifications
MSc CEng PhD FIET FRAeS FCMI,
Staff College graduate
INCOSE Pioneer, INCOSE Fellow
Status: Married with 4 sons
Recent Appointments of Interest
Post 1994
- ACPO Consultant with one of the UK’s police services, addressing aspects of policing business, organization and architectures; systems architect for their developing Command and Patrol information systems
- Visiting professor at Cranfield University’s Defence Faculty at RMCS Shrivenham, regular lecturer at City, Birmingham and Kingston Universities.
- Author and sole lecturer on Systems in Business for City University’s MSc in Air Transport Management
- Author and sole lecturer on Systems Thinking for University College, London.
- Lecturer on Systems in Business for City University's Air Transport Management MSc
- Originator, designer, supervisor, and primary lecturer on, BAe’s annual 2-week Systems Science School, teaching soft methods, systems thinking, hard methods and world class systems engineering.
- Expert adviser to the development of the UK’s NCVQ Levels 4 & 5 Systems Engineering.
- Author and presenter of numerous papers on Command and Control / Command Information Systems (C2 / CIS), systems architecture, synthetic environments and systems engineering
- International lecturer on socio-economic, psychological, astronomical, theological and systems engineering aspects of the people and the Pyramids of Ancient Egypt
- Solo contractor to MOD, researching the theoretical and practical extent of defence command and control research
- Supervisor for 4 PhD students, researching decision making, industrial systems engineering, methods for analysing complex issues, defence procurement and the potential /limitations for commercial-off -the-shelf systems in defence command and control. Developing a unique, genetically-based design program for optimising military and business organizations operating in chaotic environments. Under contract to both US and Swedish governments for the development of a prototype solution
- Exploring the contribution of social psychology and social anthropology to decision-making in industry and in Command & Control
- Founder of the UK Chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering, inaugurated at RMCS Shrivenham
- Independent member of the UK Defence Scientific Advisory Council.
1990 — 94 BAe Professor of Systems Science, formerly Command and Control, Cranfield University at RMCS Shrivenham, researching into systems theories and methods for addressing issues, systems concept development, systems engineering and tools and methods for system architecture design, command and control systems design, interactive management, etc. Chairman of the IEE's M&D Division working party developing the Guide to the Practice of Systems Engineering. Regular guest lecturer to the UK Old Crows. Initiated and organized a number of international conferences, including IDASCO (Information- Decision-Action Systems in Complex Organizations), and the first UK-hosted US-UK defence Command & Control research forum. Member of an ENTRA Working Party developing systems engineering competency standards for National Vocational Qualifications. Management and systems consultant within industry, government, and three of the UK’s police services, supporting corporate strategy development, improvements in efficiency and effectiveness at HQs, organization and performance of emergency call response, geographic/area policing, etc.
1988 — 90 Professor of Engineering Management in the Department of Systems Science at City University. Teaching engineering management, marketing and technical innovation; responsible for launching an MBA in Engineering Management. Established a new Centre for Enterprise Management. Consultant to the National Operational Policing Review. Research into: a new methodology for creating Information-Decision-Action (IDA) systems; Systems Engineering, Analysis and Management (SEAMS), a systems engineering environment; creative design by cumulative selection, developing a new tool, ©CADRAT, for evolving N2 charts and for Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM). ©CADRAT developed to identify optimal system architectures through minimization of system configuration entropy
1986 — 88 Business Development, Technical and Marketing Director of a major systems house. Technical interests in: air defence; advanced avionic architectures; land, sea and air BM/C3; financial dealing rooms; future platform processing architectures. Responsible for company quality and R&D. Inaugural chairman of the IEE's M5 Executive Committee on systems engineering. Winner of the 1987 IEE M&D Division Premium for paper on systems engineering management, "Managing Systems Creation". Directed corporate forward-looking techniques, research and development. Company lead for SDI Architecture and BMC3. Numerous papers, including Theatre Missile Defence and Advanced Multi-static Radar Techniques. Invented new design method based on natural selection analogy — SYSMORPH
1982 — 86 Technical director of a systems company concerned with C3I systems, NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS), JTIDS, and NIS. Designer of CLAN, an advanced, fully-distributed, real-time CCIS using Motorola 68x, Multibus, Cambridge-Ring and UNIX. Technical co-ordinator for RN JTIDS dual-mode terminal and its integration into RN ships. Technical lead for the design of TRANIS, a transitional NATO Identification System. UK Technical director with Airspace Management Systems, Brussels, studying Air Command and Control System (ACCS) Multi-sensor Integration, and Computer & ADP Options. Application of Knowledge Processing Systems to prototyping and to C3I Decision Support Systems. Introduced OSI ISO 7-layer model to JTIDS ship integration, and to CCISs for a number of 3rd-world countries, using CLAN, DEC VAX and AT&T machines. Author of numerous technical papers. UK technical lead for SDI Architecture and C3/Battle Management design in US-led consortium .
1980 — 82 Technical Co-ordinator for Project Definition UKAIR Command, Control and Intelligence System (CCIS) (ASR1300 & ASR1301) at HQSTC, High Wycombe, with special reference to requirements analysis, system architecture, data communications, interoperability, survivability, succession of command, secure, multi-level DBMS, human-computer interface, maintenance and life cycle costs. (This system was to become the hub of UK command and control for Granby/Desert Storm)
1979 — 80 Manager, Forward Looking Studies. In depth analysis, marketing and capture of new company business. Study areas included: JTIDS / NATO Link 16; RN Future Command Systems; Army Future Combat Helicopters; gravity as an alternative energy source; agricultural helicopter RPV control; UKAIR C2; UKAIR Defence Integration and Evolution; Automatic Airborne Threat Assessment for a future single-seat combat aircraft (European Fighter Aircraft); Intelligent and Expert Systems in C3I; NATO ACCS architecture design with MOD(AIR), MOD(PE), RSRE, SHAPETC, etc.
1975 — 79 Head of Integrated Science in a grammar school, teaching physics, integrated science, mathematics, electronics, biology and astronomy to advanced level, with music, gymnastics and athletics as additional subjects
1974 — 75 TORNADO ADV Avionics System Design Manager, integrating Foxhunter radar, mission computing and tactics, weapon assignment, communications and crew displays and controls
