Tony Radakin to head Royal Navy

Second promotion in less than 12 months for Executive Education graduate

Tony Radakin, a graduate from London Business School’s Senior Executive Programme, will be promoted to Admiral and appointed First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff for the Royal Navy.  

The promotion will be Vice Admiral Radakin’s second in less than a year, after he was made Second Sea Lord and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff in March 2018. This latest appointment will see Radakin succeeding Admiral Sir Philip Jones as head of the Royal Navy. 

These early roles saw Radakin take on security duties in the Falklands and NATO embargo operations in the Adriatic. He also worked in counter smuggling in Hong Kong and the Caribbean, and oversaw escorts during the stand-off between Iran and Iraq in the 1988 Iran-Iraq Tanker War. 

His various command roles have ranged from Lieutenant to Rear Admiral of ashore, afloat and international forces. Radakin has commanded HMS Norfolk, the Naval Training Team in Iraq, the UK Maritime Forces and the Iraqi Maritime Task Force. He was also NATO’s High Readiness Maritime Component Commander. 

Radakin read law at Southampton University and qualified as a barrister. He has an MA in International Relations and Defence Studies.