About Us

Dr Sandy Wilson
General Dynamics UK Limited

Dr Sandy Wilson became President and Managing Director of General Dynamics UK in January 2005, having previously been Senior Vice President and deputy CEO of Thales Land & Joint Systems. 

At GD UK Dr Wilson oversees work in the areas of tactical communications, ISTAR, NEC, avionics, data & information fusion and armoured fighting vehicle systems.

Dr Wilson is a leading advocate for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in his role as a council member of the Defence Manufacturers’ Association. He is an elected member of Intellect Board, the UK’s trade association for hi-tech companies, and is Vice-Chairman of Intellect’s Defence Board.

His strong pedigree in the defence business began in 1983 with Pilkington Optronics (previously known as Barr & Stroud), where he held a variety of roles including Manager, Advanced Coatings and Director, Sensors Business Group. In 1995 he joined Avimo, Taunton, as Managing Director, continuing his involvement in optronics with work on UK recce vehicles and the UK Apache helicopter programme. In October 2001, following the acquisition of Avimo by Thales, Dr Wilson became Managing Director of Thales Defence Optronic Systems, becoming CEO of Thales’ Optronics Business Group in January 2003. His subsequent role as Deputy CEO in the Thales Land & Joint Systems business widened his experience to include communications systems and NEC.

Throughout his recent career Dr Wilson has held non-executive directorships in several organisations: Chairman of Somerset TEC, Director of Arab International Optronics, Cairo and Director of Samsung Thales Corporation, Seoul.

His earlier career was spent in contract R&D at International Research & Development Ltd., Newcastle (a JV of NEI and Rolls-Royce) and at Procter & Gamble Ltd following his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Strathclyde University. 

His interests include golf, music, history, Japanese prints and oriental ceramics.