Chief Executive's Profile

The Chief Executive of the Bar Council is David Hobart.

From 2001 to 2004, David was the Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff in the Ministry of Defence, withresponsibility for the development of British Defence Policy; this ranged from the legal and ethical development of nuclear weapons policy to the size and shape of UK conventional forces, and included managing the diplomatic activities of UK defence attaches worldwide. Following the events of 11 September 2001, he led an ad hoc MOD officials policy group formed to define the new Strategic Context faced by the United Kingdom. Over the past decade he has filled a series of strategic planning and financial programming appointments, punctuated by a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies. He has been the Director of the Defence Programme responsible for the broad planning of the MOD's £25 billion annual budget, and Director of the Equipment Plan responsible for more detailed planning of the MOD's £7 billion annual equipment expenditure. He often participated in public lectures and debates on defence and international relations issues, at home and abroad. He has a qualifying law degree, an M Phil in International Relations from Magdalene College Cambridge, and in 2004 was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath.

He is a deteriorating runner and skier, an intermittent golfer, and a lapsed Friend of the Institute of Contemporary British History. He is 56 years old, married with two children, and lives in Kent.