Sir Timothy Michael Anderson, is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as the inaugural Director-General of the UK Military Aviation Authority from 2010 to 2013. The MAA was established in response to the Haddon-Cave Review into the issues surrounding the loss of an RAF Nimrod over Afghanistan in September 2006. Earlier in his career he was a fast jet pilot, primarily flying the TornadoGround Attack aircraft, and as Officer Commanding No. 14 Squadron led the United Kingdom's Tornado commitment to Operation Allied Force, the air campaign over Kosovo in 1999, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for leadership and gallantry. He is currently Chairman of the UK Airspace Change Organising Group Steering Committee, overseeing a national infrastructure programme on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport and the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
Service career
Anderson was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and was educated at the Belfast Royal Academy and King's College London. He was commissioned as an acting pilot officer in July 1979, being regraded to pilot officer in July 1980 following Initial Officer Training, and then promoted to flying officer in July 1981. He began his operational flying career in 1983 on the Tornado Ground Attack aircraft and served successively on front-line squadrons, including an exchange tour with the Royal Australian Air Force flying the F111, and operational deployments to the Middle East; being promoted to flight lieutenant in July 1984 and squadron leader in July 1989. In January 1997 he was promoted to wing commander and, in 1999, as Officer Commanding No. 14 Squadron, Anderson led the RAF Tornado GR Force commitment to the NATO Operation Allied Force over Kosovo and the former Republic of Yugoslavia, for which he was admitted to the Distinguished Service Order. Promotion to group captain in July 2000 was accompanied by appointment as the Station Commander of RAF Brüggen in Germany, the largest Tornado base in NATO, in which role he oversaw the closure of the RAF's last overseas Main Operating Base and the return of its personnel and equipment to the United Kingdom. In September 2003 Anderson was appointed as Head of Deep Theatre Attack Capability, a 1-star appointment at the Ministry of Defence responsible for the UK's F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft acquisition programme, his substantive promotion to air commodore following in July of the following year. After the Higher Command and Staff Course in 2005, he was appointed Commandant of the UK Air Warfare Centre in August of that year. In March 2007 Anderson was promoted to air vice marshal, moving to the Ministry of Defence as Assistant Chief of the Air Staff. In the 2009 Birthday Honours List he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and in 2010 was the recipient of the Curtis Sword, awarded by Aviation Week and Space Technology for leadership and cooperation in transatlantic relations. Anderson was promoted to air marshal in April 2010, his initially announced appointment being as Deputy Commander-in-Chief at Air Command,. However, this appointment was subsequently cancelled in order for him to be appointed the first Director-General of the new Military Aviation Authority, the world's first independent, fully integrated organisation, responsible for regulating and assuring operational and technical air safety within the UK military. Anderson was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 2013 New Year Honours List.
Commercial career
After leaving the RAF, Anderson established a strategic leadership and business consultancy working with a number of blue-chip international clients in Europe, the Middle East and the US. In May 2014, Anderson was appointed to the Board of Flybe Group plc, Europe's largest regional airline, as a Non-executive Director and Chairman of the Company's Safety and Security Review Board. In June 2018, Anderson stepped down from the Flybe Board in order to assume the executive role of Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for running the airline operation, the training academy and overseeing maintenance support whilst the Company was prepared for sale. Following the successful sale of the company to Connect Airways in February 2018, Anderson resigned from the Flybe group in September 2019 in order to take up the role of Chairman of the Department for Transport and CAA-sponsored Airspace Change Organising Group Steering Committee. The ACOG is responsible for coordinating a £150M national infrastructure programme to redesign the UK’s national airspace structures, involving all major UK airports and hundreds of Airspace Change Proposals over a 10-year period. Anderson is currently also a Strategic Adviser to National Air Traffic Services.
Personal
Anderson is an ex-President of the RAF Rugby Union and Hon. President of the Northern Ireland Wing of the Air Training Corps. He is a Vice Patron of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust and Honorary Air Commodore of No 622 Squadron RAF Reserves. In 2013 he was appointed a life Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and in July 2016 was made a Doctor of Science by Cranfield University in recognition of his contribution to the Defence and Security sector. He is married with two adult daughters; other interests include cycling, beekeeping, motor racing, leisure flying and cooking.
