Past President

The Institution of Engineering & Technology

Biography

Sir Julian Young is the President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and recently retired from the Royal Air Force (RAF) after 40 years of service as an Engineer Officer.

In his last post, he was Director-General Air within the Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organization in the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

In this role, he led some 2,265 military and civilian specialists and was responsible for putting to work some £3.7 billion annually on equipping and supporting all the MOD’s fixed-wing aircraft.  He was concurrently a member of the Air Force Board and the RAF’s Chief Engineer, and he had a MOD-wide role as the Defence Engineering Champion.

Throughout his long career, Julian held a variety of in-command, manpower policy, operational, engineering, training, logistics and staff appointments, including Project Team Leader for the Harrier GR7/T10 fleet and on the Support Helicopter Force (Falkland Islands, Cold War Germany and Gulf War I).

Julian’s first degree was in Air Transport Engineering, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

He is also a Trustee of the RAF Charitable Trust and Chair of ‘The STEM Code’ Advisory Board.

He was awarded a KBE in 2020, a CB in 2013 and an OBE in 2000.