Gray worked for five years in investment banking and capital markets, for
Bankers Trust and
Chase Manhattan, in London and New York City. He spent nearly ten years as a journalist at the
Financial Times Group, including as a defence correspondent. He was recognised in the
Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards in 1996 for the
Best Defence Submission. From 1997 to 1999 Gray was a special adviser to former
Defence Secretaries George Robertson and
Geoff Hoon, during which time Gray directed the
Strategic Defence Review of 1998. From 1999 to 2001 he was Strategy Director of the UK publishing and events division of
United Business Media,
CMP Information. He was heavily involved in the proposed
Carlton-UBM merger. From 2003 to 2006 he was a non-executive director of
Cable & Wireless; he was also chairman of the company's remuneration committee. He has also served as non-executive director for the UK broadcaster
Five.
New Scientist was acquired by the publisher of the
Daily Mail in March 2021.
Report on UK defence acquisition In 2008 Defence Secretary
John Hutton commissioned Gray as a special adviser to the
Labour Party, based at the
Ministry of Defence (MoD), to undertake an
independent review of defence acquisition, which was published in October 2009. Although publication was initially moved from July 2009 until after the general election – prompting
The Spectator to suggest that it had been "suppressed" – the confidential report was leaked to
The Sunday Telegraph in August 2009.
The Times highlighted some of the more "damning" extracts from the report: • The department is running a "substantially overheated equipment programme, with too many types of equipment being ordered for too large a range of tasks at too high a specification". • The MoD is "harming our ability ... to conduct difficult current operations". • "The problems, and the sums of money involved, have almost lost their power to shock, so endemic is the issue." • "It seems as though military equipment acquisition is vying in a technological race with the delivery of civilian software systems for the title of ’world’s most delayed technical solution’. Even British trains cannot compete." • "How can it be that it takes 20 years to buy a ship, or aircraft, or tank? Why does it always seem to cost at least twice what was thought? Even worse, at the end of the wait, why does it never quite seem to do what it was supposed to?" • "Agile enemies such as
the Taliban are unlikely to wait for our sclerotic acquisition systems to catch up". It was formally presented to
Parliament in October 2009, with the MoD accepting its two main themes: a need to bring equipment plans into line with likely available resources, and a need to improve equipment programme planning, management and delivery.
Chief of Defence Materiel In December 2010 Gray was appointed to the role of
Chief of Defence Materiel in the MoD, leading
Defence Equipment and Support. He replaced General Sir
Kevin O'Donoghue. The four-year appointment commenced on 4 January 2011. As of 2015, Gray was paid a salary of between £220,000 and £224,999 by the department, making him one of the 328 highest-paid people in the British public sector at that time. In September 2015 it was announced that he was to be succeeded by
Tony Douglas at the end of that year. ==Post-government activities==