Jon Leeper

Background

About Jon Leeper

It is easy to look at me and think I come from a heavy metal band (I’d love to think that Amon Amarth, Slayer or ZZ Top spring to mind) ride a Harley Davidson or, in the opinion of my mother (and whose mother is ever wrong?) am the reincarnation of an Old Testament prophet!(🤣) You would, however, be wrong! I am even more interesting than that! Aside from my MSc in Explosive Ordnance Engineering (military, not mining) and my 23 years in the military and defence worlds, I have worked across enormous organisations with hugely challenging logistics problems. So, when I say I can move stuff, I mean it. And when I say 'stuff', I mean everything from large scale volumes (such as a Battlegroup from Germany to Poland or thousands of items of post) to highly complex items (such as Covid-19 tests or terrorist bomb making equipment) all of which require intense logistic expertise. I can manage things, transform even the most moribund, or failing service, I can hugely improve your processes, procedures, or business because in the Army, failure is not an option. If things don’t work or are late in the Army, people can die. So, I can do these things calmly as there is nothing that could be as intense as commanding soldiers to fire back when people are shooting at you. For example, I used to run the Post Office - or rather the military post office in Germany, about which, I would imagine you know very little, so let me tell you at the time British Forces Germany numbered about serving personnel with a similar number of family members and the same again in Civil Servants. So, people give or take, in a foreign country looking to my team, 115 people, to keep them in touch with friends and family at home. Remember that this is back before internet, email, messaging, etc was as easily available or integrated. You can see how that might cede into my career now. I have worked for nearly 6 years in civvy street, 4 ½ for Amazon, now and I can say with some justification, you are unlikely to get anyone who has seen more, done more, or moved more than I have. What's more to boot, I am lovely, funny, charming, resilient, authentic, honest, value-led, creative, and curious leader who strives to bring the best out of people. I believe that true leaders drive forwards, from the front, setting the example and initiating beneficial change whilst bringing the entire organisation with them, and I am one of those. “Behind every great leader there was an even greater logistician.” - M Cox “The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…” Sun Tzu