Brigadier Ben Slaughter

Ben Slaughter was born in Brisbane where he attended Brisbane Grammar School and studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Queensland. He started his military career as a Reserve Officer Cadet while a full time university student. In 1992 he transferred to the Regular Army as a Second Lieutenant into the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RAEME).

Brigadier Slaughter’s early career included a variety of corps, regimental, and capability development roles in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. More recently he has worked in maintenance engineering, incident management, and force structure plans. In 2019 he posted to London and was embedded in the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters as the J5 planning lead for UK joint operations in Indo-Pacific region and Africa.

Brigadier Slaughter has been privileged to have had command appointments as the Officer Commanding Support Squadron 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the Commanding Officer 7 Combat Service Support Battalion and Commander Joint Logistic Unit (Victoria).

He has deployed as the lead for the first Maintenance Advisory Team into Iraq in 2003, the lead for the first Logistic Assurance Team into the Special Operation Task Group in 2004 and with 2nd Cavalry Regiment in 2006/07 as part of the Overwatch Battlegroup in Iraq.

He has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Queensland, a Bachelor of Laws from the Queensland University of Technology and a Masters in Strategy and Management from the University of NSW. He is a Fellow of the Defence and Strategic Studies Course and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Brigadier Slaughter is married to Maria who is a workforce planning consultant in the Defence sector. Like many working couples they share the parenting of two active boys and when they can find time around the boy’s sporting commitments, the family enjoy the outdoors and travelling.