James Kidner
Director of Partnerships, Rebellion Defence
James Kidner has been working in technology start-ups for the last five years, after a career in the Diplomatic Service. He joined Rebellion Defence, a new UK-US company building software for defence and security, in 2019 as Director of Partnerships. This followed three years at Improbable, another technology unicorn, which makes platforms for computer games and large-scale simulations. Before that, he served for three decades in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and in other Whitehall positions, including on the Senior Directing Staff of the Royal College of Defence Studies from 2014-2016, in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and in the office of the Leader of the House of Commons. Overseas, he worked in India, Malaysia and Bulgaria; and from 2003 – 2006 he was Deputy Private Secretary to The Prince of Wales. James was the founding Director of Coexist – a new educational charity working to help people understand religion’s role in today’s globalised society. He has a BA and MA from Oxford University, where he studied History at Christ Church. He lives on a family farm on Dartmoor.