The Royal United Services Institute of New South Wales

Brigadier Haydn Kohl was born in Hobart, Tasmania on 3 August 1969. In 1989 he graduated from the Royal Military College (Duntroon) to the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Brigadier Kohl held a range of regimental and staff appointments during his early career including postings to 1 Watercraft Workshop, Sydney Workshop Company, 26 Transport Squadron, the School of Artillery and 4 Combat Service Support Battalion. Brigadier Kohl also spent two years as the Staff Officer Overseas Training and Education on HQ Training Command. During this posting he revitalised the overseas training program and organised mobile training teams that deployed to South-East Asia and the South-West Pacific in support of International Policy Division.

In 1999 Brigadier Kohl completed the Army Technical Staff Officers Course (ATSOC) at ADFA. Since then he has undertaken a mix of capability and project management, staff and instructional postings; commencing with an appointment as the Systems Engineer for the ASLAV Project. This was followed by attendance at the (Australian) Command and Staff College (C&SC) and a subsequent two-year exchange posting to HQ UK Land Command where he was part of the G4 team that deployed and supported 30,000 British troops in Iraq. In 2005 he was posted to the then Defence Materiel Organization (DMO) as the M113 Program Manager, responsible for both the M113A1 fleet and the M113AS4 upgrade project.

In 2008 Brigadier Kohl, then a lieutenant colonel, was again selected for an overseas posting, this time as an instructor at the UK Defence Academy where he was course manager for a number of acquisition and trials management courses. Whilst there, he also lectured on a range of university courses. This posting was particularly rewarding as it involved instructing on the Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land), a 32 week career course for British Army and Royal Marine majors.

In 2010 Brigadier Kohl returned to Australia on promotion to colonel and posted as Director Armaments Systems Program Office (SPO) in DMO. This was followed by the appointment as Director Clothing SPO in 2011. In January 2014, he was posted to Capability Development Group as the Director Joint Force Integration, where he was responsible for developing policy for improving Joint integration and interoperability within the ADF. In May 2014 he was promoted to Brigadier and appointed as Director General Land Vehicle Systems and in October 2016 he took up his current position as Director General Land Manoeuvre Systems where he is responsible for the acquisition and sustainment of Land equipment ranging from tents to tanks; from ground based air defence systems to musical instruments and engineer plant equipment. He was appointed as Head of Corps RAEME in October 2015, a role he fills concurrently with his other responsibilities.

Brigadier Kohl's professional development is underpinned by a number of operational deployments. In 1996 he was seconded to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) headquarters in El Arish in the Sinai. In 2003 he deployed to Kabul as the S4(EME) for the Royal Anglian Battlegroup and in 2004 he deployed to Basrah in Iraq as the S4(EME) on the headquarters of a logistic brigade.

Brigadier Kohl has continued his professional education throughout his career. Highlights include receiving a Masters of Science in Operations Research and Statistics from ATSOC in 1999 and graduating from C&SC with a Masters of Management in Defence Studies in 2002. In 2007 Brigadier Kohl joined the Australian Institute of Project Management and in 2012 he joined the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In 1997 Brigadier Kohl was awarded a Force Commander's Certificate of Appreciation for his service with the MFO. In 2004 he received a Commander-in-Chief (Land) Commendation for implementing a new equipment maintenance regime for the British Army. In 2007 he was commended by Head Land Systems for his work on the M113AS4 upgrade program.

Source: RAEME QLD