Colin joined the army in 1989 and after 9 years in the Royal Scots passed selection first time aged 23 into 22 SAS. Colin was fortunate enough to have been involved in some of the more high profile and daring missions of the recent period.
He waded through stinking swamps in Sierra Leone in West Africa to hunt down the West Side Boys, a guerilla gang holding five British soldiers hostage. It was a mission so daring and dangerous they nicknamed it Operation Certain Death. The SAS recce teams secured the hostages’ building and neutralised any West Side Boys prior to the main assault arriving and secured the prison building before the rest of the unit arrived wiping out the terrorists in 2000.
He was also the first sniper on the scene when a hijacked Afghan flight with 180 passengers landed in London in the same year, sparking a stand-off that lasted four days and was the longest standing hostage siege on UK soil to date. But four years later Colin found himself on the other side of a rescue mission after he was taken hostage in the Iraqi city of Basra.
Blindfolded, battered and stripped naked, he felt a gun pressed to his head and heard them pull the trigger in what was a mock execution. Father-of-two Colin only survived long enough for British troops to rescue him because the terrorists who held him wanted to film his suffering in a propaganda video before they executed him.
Having had both an exciting and varied career, Colin is an excellent speaker on a wide variety of topics including Resilience, Teamwork, Leadership, Risk, Motivation, Conflict Resolution, Change Management, Negotiation and Performance. He is also an experienced presenter and host for events.
