Christopher Gardner (Royal Navy officer)

Vice Admiral Sir Christopher Reginald Summers Gardner, KBE (born 10 October 1962) is a senior Royal Navy officer. Since 2022, he has been CEO of the Submarine Delivery Agency.

Vice Admiral Sir Christopher Gardner KBE
Rear Admiral Gardner in 2016
Born	(1962-10-10) 10 October 1962 (age 62) Hong Kong[1]
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1984–present
Rank	Vice Admiral
Battles / wars	Iraq War
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Naval career

Gardner joined the Royal Navy as a logistics officer in 1984. He went on to serve on submarines and ships including HMS Tireless, HMS Sirius, and HMS Endurance.^[2]

Gardner became Head of Capability Improvement at the Ministry of Defence in 2010, Assistant Chief of Staff (Ships) in 2014 and Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Ships) in 2015.^[3] He was promoted to the rank of vice admiral and become Chief of Materiel (Ships) at Defence Equipment and Support in April 2019.^[4][5] Gardner's appointment has re-titled as 'Director General Ships'.^[6] In September 2022, he was appointed CEO of the Submarine Delivery Agency.^[7]

Having been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours,^[8] Gardner was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours.^[9][10]

Family

In 1993, Gardner married Teresa Heather Edgecombe; they have one son and one daughter.^[11]