Air Commodore Wendy Blyth has a proven reputation for excellence in delivering major complex capital acquisitions, sustaining major capability programmes, and for excellence in leadership. In her role as Officer Commanding of the Surveillance and Response Systems Program Office, she was responsible for establishing in service sustainment arrangements for the P-8 Poseidon aircraft in addition to ensuring all sustainment activities associated with the P-3 Orion, Heron Unmanned Aerial System, all Australian Defence Force Aerospace Life Support Equipment. This role was key in ensuring high levels of operational capability were sustained both on the P-3 Orion despite the fleet size being continually reduced, and the P-8 Poseidon as its operational tempo increased. In doing so, Wendy both established and maintained complex contractual and industry relationships, and nurtured relationships with the United States Navy. For these efforts, Wendy received the inaugural 2019 Australian Defence Magazine’s Women in Defence award for Project Management. In her role as the Project Manager for the P-8 Poseidon acquisition, Wendy was responsible for completing all artefacts and documents necessary to enable Government to approve acquisition of the P-8 Poseidon fleet as planned, and to allocate the $4.5bn associated budget. She initiated key relationships with acquisition elements of the United States Navy to develop the procurement arrangements necessary to actually implement the project after approval. Such activities required extensive interactions with financial, legal, commercial and international representatives, as well as continued engagement with the Capability sponsor to ensure requirements continued to be met. Wendy has proven her ability to Command, both at the Surveillance and Response Systems Program Office, and also as the Commanding Officer of the C130J Logistics Management Unit, where she was responsible for the provision of all engineering, contracted maintenance, supply chain management oversight, and for enacting the contract and finance support necessary to sustain the C130J aircraft both home and deployed. Wendy reinforced appropriate behaviours and expectations with the result being that the C130J Logistics Management Unit and C130J sustainment contract became some of the highest performing contributors to Air Mobility. Further, she was able to recover Air Force’s confidence in C130J sustainment support. Wendy has also had extensive experience in Governance and management of technical risk, logistics, supply chains, contracts, significant financial budgets, engineering, and design. She is an experienced Design Engineer, and was the Senior Engineering Officer at Number 11 Squadron, where she was responsible for 220 personnel and maintenance of 12 P-3 aircraft. Wendy is a graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy. She has a Bachelor of Engineering, and three Masters degrees, in Management Studies, Strategy and Management, and Engineering Science. She is a graduate of the Australian Command and Staff College, and most recently, she graduated from the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. She is a Fellow and Chartered Professional Engineer with Engineers Australia and a Certified Practising Project Director with the Australian Institute of Project Management. In 2020 Wendy became a member of the Order of Australia for her exceptional service to the Australian Defence Force in C-130J Super Hercules sustainment reform; and in P-8A Poseidon capability development and system sustainment. Wendy is married, has two young daughters, and is a fan of the Brisbane Broncos.

As an engineer and project manager, Air Commodore Phillips has over 30 years of experience in the RAAF, predominantly delivering highly complex aerospace projects and managing their in-service support. He is currently Director General Business Relationship Management within the Chief Information Officer Group, helping to connect Defence Groups and Services with ICT solutions. After successfully completing an Engineering Degree through ADFA, his junior appointments were supporting the F-111. Upon promotion to Squadron Leader in 1999, Air Commodore Phillips was involved in a range of acquisition projects for the F-111G, Hawk Lead-in Fighter and the classic F/A-18 Hornet. In January 2002, Air Commodore Phillips was posted overseas to St Louis Missouri as the Engineering Manager within the Hornet Upgrade Phase 2.2 team. On promotion to Wing Commander in 2005, he was posted as the Aerospace Systems Division Chief Engineer – Acquisition where he was the principal advisor to Head of Aerospace Systems Division and his executives on aerospace engineering matters. In January 2008, Air Commodore Phillips was posted to the AEW&C Program as the Engineering Manager for Project Air 5077 Wedgetail in the USA, culminating in him accepting the first two aircraft. Leon was promoted to Group Captain in 2012 and appointed as the Project Director responsible for the eight billion dollar portfolio of Maritime surveillance projects. During his tenure he guided the RAAF’s P-8A acquisition through Government approval and established the initial procurements while also planning for the MQ-4C Triton procurement in the future. Leon was then appointed as Officer Commanding, Surveillance and Control Systems Program Office, responsible for the acquisition and sustainment of assigned airspace surveillance, control and communications systems for the Australian Defence Force. In 2017 he was promoted to Air Commodore and given responsibility for the acquisition and sustainment of capabilities such as the AP-3C Orion, P-8A Poseidon, MQ-4C Triton, PC-9 and PC-21 training capabilities, B300 King Air, E-7 Wedgetail and fleet wide enabling aerospace materiel. Air Commodore Phillips has a degree in Electronic Engineering, a Masters in Project Management and an Executive Masters in Business. He is also a Master Project Director with the Australian Institute of Project Management and a Fellow of Engineers Australia. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 2018 for his work in complex projects and for mentoring staff. Air Commodore Phillips is married to his best friend Group Captain Angie Castner and has four children, Ethan, Tori, Megan and Ashleigh. His interests include a lifelong obsession for hockey, having played in Australia’s National Hockey League and he continues to compete for Australia at the Masters level. He is currently President of ADF Hockey. Other passions include cycling, cooking and wine.