Bristow Group has announced that Carl Dixon has joined Bristow as director, government portfolio. Dixon will lead Bristow’s activity to build its global search and rescue (SAR) business, engaging with governments and public sector institutions around the world.
Dixon has a military background; as Air-Vice Marshal, he served as Commander of the U.K. Joint Helicopter Command since 2011, with responsibility for 16,500 people from the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force; 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence bases, and 400 helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. He served previously as Director Information Superiority with the UK Ministry of Defence equipment staff, and was Air Member for Equipment Capability on the Air Force Board. In 2005 he was appointed Director Equipment Capability (Air & Littoral Manoeuvre).
Prior to these assignments, Dixon served as station commander of Royal Air Force Benson, an operational unit and airfield in Oxfordshire, from which he deployed to Iraq as Commander U.K. Joint Helicopter Force. He captained the lead Chinook aircraft in the record-breaking deployment to Sierra Leone in 2000 and led helicopter operations over Kosovo in 1999. In 1997, he was Commander of the Joint Support Helicopter Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was appointed Officer Commanding No 27 Squadron RAF later that year. He was commissioned into the RAF in 1979.
Dixon is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and, in recognition of his distinguished military career, was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath.
