Jyoti Hirani-Driver

Jyoti Hirani-Driver has been the Chief Operating Officer of NATO DIANA since

January 2024, and is responsible for overseeing the Accelerator Programme,

establishing business performance and risk management, and identifying and

implementing improvements across the organisation. She is also responsible for the

HR function and establishing the DIANA Regional Hub in Estonia and the DIANA

Regional Office in Canada.

Prior to this post, she was a Senior Civil Servant (SCS1)/ 1* in the UK Ministry of

Defence, holding the position of Deputy Director of Corporate Governance in the

Directorate for Afghan Relocation and Resettlement. She placed operations on a

programmatic footing, secured long-term funding, doubled staffing which allowed key

strategic objectives to be met.

National security has been a key theme of Jyoti’s career. She was the Chief of Staff

for Defence Innovation Directorate, leading a team to secure £1.1billion in funding for

research, development and innovation for the UK Ministry of Defence. Prior to this,

she held multiple policy, strategy and operational crisis roles in counter-terrorism,

including kidnaps, terrorist financing and UK - Middle East, Africa and Asia counter-terrorism relations.