Chris Hindle
UK Chief Financial Officer
Chris Hindle was appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Thales in the UK in 2023.
He graduated from Durham University with a degree in Natural Sciences and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), qualifying whilst training first with Brush Transformers and as an Internal Auditor at the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).
Chris has been with Thales since 1993, initially joining Thomson-Marconi Sonar as a Site Accountant before moving onto roles including Anti-Submarine Warfare Product Accountant, Business Line Finance Manager for Customer Services and leading a major restructuring and change team as Project Manager.
In 2001 Chris joined ABB (Swiss-Swedish engineering group) as Business Controller for Project Operations & Process Automation, across sectors including Pharmaceuticals, Pulp & Paper, Marine Turbochargers but most particularly in Oil & Gas and the construction of a 1700km oil & gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea (Baku, Azerbaijan) through Georgia & Turkey to the Mediterranean Sea, establishing a Project & Finance office in Baku before rejoining Thales as Finance Director, Thales Communications in 2006.
Chris then progressed into roles as Financial Controller of Land & Joint Systems, Finance Director of the Crawley Site and Finance Director, UK Operations & Corporate Services including responsibility for Finance transformation, building a UK Finance Shared Service and the subsequent offshoring to a captive SSC in Lisbon, Portugal.
Away from work, Chris is an avid watcher of sport, and has been to football World Cup Finals in South Africa and Brazil and he is a season ticket holder at Reading FC, although a boyhood Norwich City supporter.
Chris has 2 children and 3 step-children.