Ex-Army officer from Belfast recognised for helping 500 veterans into business careers

Laura Blair was recently named the winner of the Employee Champion Award at The Armed Forces Community Awards 2026 at the Park Plaza Westminster Hotel in London.

She studied history and politics at QUB before training to be a British Army officer at the world renowned Sandhurst Military Academy in Berkshire.

After graduating she joined the Adjutant General's Corps, which handles military personnel administration, and enjoyed a "fantastic" career including postings to places such as Afghanistan and Bosnia.

After 12 years she left to take up a series of senior business positions in London.

She then retrained as a teacher, reaching the position of Vice Principal of a London comprehensive school.

Now Laura works for Centrica plc, the British multinational energy and services company formerly known as British Gas.

In her role as Head of Centrica Pathway she supports service leavers, veterans, reservists and their families to build meaningful civilian careers.

The role also takes in similar support for Olympians and Paralympians.

Drawing on her own experience of transitioning from military to civilian life, she has developed a UK-wide talent programme which goes far beyond recruitment. Since 2022, her leadership has helped bring more than 450 people from the Armed Forces community into Centrica, supported by structured development and pastoral care.

Laura has also created an internal Forces network of more than 500 members, alongside initiatives including the “Oppo” buddy scheme, which supports new joiners from their first day with the company. Her work has helped Centrica secure its position as a Gold Employer Recognition Scheme holder.

She was one of 12 winners from across the UK recognised at this year’s Armed Forces Community Awards, celebrating achievement, resilience, leadership and service across the Armed Forces community.

Laura told the News Letter: "The fact that my full-time job is supporting people from across the forces community, plus Olympians and Paralympians, is an absolute privilege and pleasure.

"I love knowing that I get up every morning and am able to help both of those communities, and bring them into the company in some really meaningful future focussed roles.

"And I don't get to just support them during the recruitment process, but when they land in the business with our internal thriving forces network, which is now over 500 strong.

"It is also a privilege to help them land in a really supportive environment and be involved in how we retain them as talent and watch them progress and achieve promotion in the future."

A key part of her role is helping veterans understand their transferable skills, such as resilience, adaptability, self discipline, leadership, people management and project management.

While there are many people in the army who already have professional qualifications and trades, she finds the core army qualities in front line infantry soldiers are also invaluable in a business context.

For example, she has helped many infantry soldiers into careers such as smart metering / engineering apprenticeships; field engineering and other operational engineering roles; Gas Service & Repair Engineer apprenticeships; Offshore operations, including Offshore Supervisor; Customer operations / customer-facing roles; Major infrastructure / operational roles; change delivery roles; Project Management roles and transformation programme management.