Mr Keith Eaton
Lecturer, Defence Acquisition and Management
Location: Centre for Defence Acquisition, Vincent Centre
E: k.eaton@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 1793 78 5872
Department of Management and Security
Current activities
Keith lectures on Through Life Capability Management (TLCM) courses and Financing Acquisition modules of the Defence Acquisition Management MSc. He presents at conferences and seminars on a range of topics relating to Defence Acquisition. Keith’s specialist areas are in:
- Collaborative Commercial Relationships
- Supply Chain Management
- Approvals & Scrutiny
- Through Life Capability Management
Background
After leaving the Army in 1990 having served in the Middle East, Europe, and Northern Ireland Keith moved into his first period of consultancy with assignments in the MoD as the Installation Design Authority for the Corporate Headquarters Office Technology System (CHOTS); for the NAO who were taking their first steps towards understanding commercial practices for the procurement of spares and support, for the Islamic Development Bank who were establishing a business and academic knowledge management service across the internet; and for the Overseas Development Agency (now DfID) who were conducting due diligence in support of their aid to a Company exporting the capability to build telecommunication switching facilities in the Hunan province of China.
On leaving consultancy for the first time he joined a capital equipment supplier as Technical\General Manager. His career focus shifted to development and marketing of bespoke coding systems to a wide range of manufacturing industries both in the UK and Europe. During this time he introduced a number of novel solutions to the challenges faced by various sectors of industry and retail sector in the traceability and tracking of goods within the supply chain.
Drawing on this industrial, commercial and supply chain experience, he returned to consultancy this time to focus on Supply Chain Management within global supply chains of major corporations based around the world.
Since joining Cranfield University as a lecturer, having spent four years within DE&S working on organisational change initiatives, Keith has developed and delivered short courses on Through Life Capability Management and Masters level Finance. Keith has an MSc from Warwick University having attained a DMS from Bristol Polytechnic; he is currently working on his Doctorate which examines social factors and their impact on Defence supplier relationships.
