Bob Stewart was the first British United Nations Commander in Bosnia and has completed considerable service in Northern Ireland. He has also experienced policy making at the highest military levels during three years as Military Assistant to NATO's Senior Military Officer in Brussels and a further two years as Chief of Policy at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe.
The son of a Regular Officer, Bob was selected for officer training when he was seventeen years old. After two years training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he was commissioned as an infantry officer of The Cheshire Regiment in 1969. Four years later the Army sent him to the School of International Politics at the University of Wales where he obtained a First Class Degree in International Politics and Strategy.
Returning to full-time Army service in 1977, Bob first became an intelligence officer in Northern Ireland before being sent to Sandhurst as an instructor. Two years later he attended the Army Staff College at Camberley for fifteen months before once again returning to Northern Ireland, this time as an infantry company commander. On 6 December 1982, as incident commander, he was responsible for controlling and responding to a terrorist bomb at Ballykelly. The bomb killed seventeen people - six of them being soldiers from his own Company. For his actions he was awarded The General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland's Commendation.
Over the next seven years he carried out a series of appointments. He served in Military Operations within the Ministry of Defence, attended the Joint Services Staff College and was Second in Command of his Battalion. Then he became Military Assistant (Lieutenant Colonel) to the Chairman of NATO's Military Committee in Brussels and was responsible for drafting the first speech made by a NATO officer within the Soviet Ministry of Defence in Moscow.
In March 1991 he assumed command of 1st Battalion the Cheshire Regiment. As Commanding Officer he carried out two further operational tours: to Northern Ireland again and as the first British Commander under United Nations command in Bosnia from September 1992 to May 1993. On returning from Bosnia he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for leadership and gallantry during his Balkan tour. Promoted to Colonel he then took up the appointment of Chief of Policy at NATO's major military headquarters at Mons in Belgium. In late 1993 he published a book on peacekeeping in the Balkans, entitled 'Broken Lives'.
Bob Stewart left the British Army in September 1995 to become Senior Consultant in the Public Affairs and Corporate Policy Division of Hill & Knowlton (UK) Ltd. In May 1998 he was appointed Managing Director of WorldSpace UK Ltd, a digital radio satellite broadcasting company that operates in the Developing World.
In October 2001 Bob Stewart was a founding partner of The Leadership Backbone, a consultancy which specialises in business leadership, security, crisis management, motivation, and negotiation.
Frequently contributing to newspapers, his book 'Broken Lives', about command during the Balkan War, sold well. He has often appeared on television for the BBC, SKY and occasionally CNN as well as being the anchor ITV News Channel commentator during the last Gulf War. Recently he presented a 60 minute BBC film on 'Military Principles in Business'.
He occasionally lectures at various universities on defence matters and is a fellow of Kingston University Business School. Bob Stewart has been Chairman of the Independent Defence Media Association, representing freelance British Defence journalists, for the last 4 years. He chaired the 4-day Metropolitan Police Federation Conference into the use of 'Lethal Force' in October 2005 and is the presenter of 'The Negotiator' a series for Channel 5 Television in which he tries to settle disputes between communities, companies and individuals.