Major General John Holmes
- Strategic Planning
- Crisis Management
- Security
- Government Access
- Operations
Major General (rtd) John T. Holmes DSO OBE MC is the Chief Operating Officer and a Founding Principal of SAFA HOLMES.
John served in Special Forces in the British Army and earned awards for gallantry and leadership in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Sierra Leone. His main operational achievements were as Commanding Officer 22 Special Air Service (SAS) during Gulf War One and as Director of the UK Special Forces during Operation Barras in 2000 through to his involvement in launching Sudan’s ongoing Peace and Reconciliation process in 2020. He won his Military Cross as a 2/Lt in Northern Ireland in 1971.
Throughout this period, John attended Her Majesty’s Government Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR) crisis management meetings on matters relating to national security. He was also posted for two years to Washington DC as the UK Embassy’s Liaison Officer for Special Operations.
On retirement from the Army as a two-star General, John joined a private security company and was responsible for raising a 15,000 strong Oil Protection Force for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq after the Gulf War Two.
His subsequent security and intelligence related consultancy have seen him doing business in challenging environments and successfully handling complex situations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, often at the Head of State level.
