Charlotte lambkin biography

BAE Systems is the UK's biggest defence contractor and is currently embroiled in a Serious Fraud Office investigation.

This concerns the alleged use of a &#;60m slush fund to oil the wheels of the Al Yamamah deal to sell arms to Saudi Arabia.

But perhaps the most challenging moment of Lambkin's eight months in the role occurred at the Paris Air Show in June when her boss, CEO Mike Turner, was reported as saying that BAE chairman Dick Olver 'knows nothing about our business'.

Lambkin, who is not on the board, is adamant the situation did not get beyond her control.

'Mike and Dick have a good relationship, which is quite rigorous and robust at times,' she says. 'I want two people to test each other and then come to an agreement and that is exactly what they do. Out of control is when one of them leaves.'

The sharp-elbowed impression that emerges from Lambkin's firing-on-all-cylinders exterior m