Chris Shepherd is a commercial and business growth leader with extensive experience across the defence, aerospace and autonomy sectors. He is responsible for driving RAD’s growth in defence and adjacent markets, leading business winning, strategic partnerships and market expansion.

Chris has held senior roles at Thales, L3Harris and MBDA, working on complex, high-value programmes across maritime, land and air domains. He has led business units, recovered challenging programmes, and delivered critical capability into service at pace, including in operationally urgent environments.

More recently, he has worked at the forefront of the uncrewed maritime sector, leading the rapid delivery of autonomous surface systems into defence customers and supporting innovative deployments in support of UK and allied operations. He has also advised a number of SMEs in the autonomy and maritime space, helping them position, grow and win in highly competitive defence markets.

Chris brings a combination of strategic insight, delivery focus and deep understanding of defence customers, supporting RAD to become a leading provider of electric propulsion and integrated systems for next-generation maritime capability.

Dan Hook CEng, FRINA, is a naval architect and chartered engineer with over 25 years’ experience in the marine industry. Upon graduating from the University of Southampton, Dan worked on the development, testing and trials of a wide range of specialist craft. During this time, he recognised the potential within the unmanned vehicle industry and specialised in unmanned platform design.
Dan was one of the founding members of ASV Global, a pioneer in USV development now known as L3 ASV and held the position of managing director as the company grew from two employees to 150 before selling to L3 Harris Technologies. He then became the CTO of Ocean Infinity overseeing the development of the Armada fleet of lean crewed ships (up to 86m) and a host of supporting technologies and platforms. Dan is the co-founder and CEO of RAD, a fast-growing marine tech company providing electric drive and control systems for crewed and uncrewed platforms. He supports several robotics start-ups as a minor investor and board advisor and between 2019 and 2025 was a Trustee and Director of the National Oceanography Centre.
He is active on many industry/government initiatives to grow the UK marine industry.

Peter Byford is chief technical officer at RAD, leading all technical aspects of product development and overseeing the delivery of complex engineering projects.

Since joining RAD, Peter has played a central role in the design and development of the company’s electric propulsion systems, helping to position RAD at the forefront of sustainable marine technology.

Before RAD, Peter was head of electrical systems at L3Harris Technologies, where he led the design and delivery of advanced marine robotic systems. Earlier in his career he gained extensive experience in the automotive sector, working with major OEMs and race teams, and he spent over a decade in web development and online database systems delivering digital solutions for blue-chip clients.

Peter holds a first-class degree in automotive engineering and brings a blend of technical depth, cross-industry experience, and practical leadership to his role.

Keith has over 25 years experience of working on commercial and military projects for UK and international customers.

Specialising in the design and integration of EV propulsion and power systems (marine and automotive) with expertise in the design and integration of electrical control systems for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs).

Additionally experienced in:
Autosport/Motorsport: Electrical design for road and track applications.
Aviation/Avionics: Wind tunnel and high-pressure air control and data acquisition system design.
Production: Automated Test Equipment (ATE) design for front line aircraft avionics.
Test fixture and test process design for high volume manufacturing environments.

Harry graduated from the University of Southampton with a MEng in Electronic Engineering. His extensive skillset covers processor and PCB design as well as web development and cloud infrastructure. At RAD Harry leads a team of engineers to deliver digital systems enabling the electrification of marine propulsion.

During his degree he focused on embedded systems design, particularly networked sensor systems and low-level electronic design. His masters’ project involved novel analogue design for a secure system.