Colin MacLachlan

Colin Maclachlan, star of Channel Four’s captivating reality TV drama SAS: Who Dares Wins and Channel 5’s ‘Secrets of the SAS’ is an operator with over 25 years of security and risk related experience.

Colin’s Background:

Colin joined the army in 1989 and after 9 years in the Royal Scots passed selection into SAS on his first try. Colin was fortunate enough to have been involved in some of the more high profile and daring missions of the recent period. Only a handful of men have been involved in hostage negotiations, hostage rescue and been a hostage themselves and Colin is one of them!

He waded through stinking swamps in Sierra Leone in West Africa to hunt down the West Side Boys, a guerilla gang holding five British soldiers hostage. It was a mission so daring and dangerous they nicknamed it Operation Certain Death.

He was also the first sniper on the scene when a hijacked Afghan flight with 180 passengers landed in London in the same year, sparking a stand-off that lasted four days and was the longest standing hostage siege on UK soil to date.

Four years later Colin found himself on the other side of a rescue mission after he was taken hostage in the Iraqi city of Basra. Blindfolded, battered and stripped naked, he felt a gun pressed to his head and heard them pull the trigger in what was a mock execution. Father-of-two Colin only survived long enough for British troops to rescue him because the terrorists who held him wanted to film his suffering in a propaganda video before they executed him.

Speaker Colin MacLachlan now:

Keynote Speaker Colin MacLachlan left the SAS shortly after doing an exchange programme with both Delta Force and Seal Team 6. After doing security consultancy for the Saudi Royal Family, A-List Celebrities and US Media Networks, he decided to fund himself through university where he attained a First Class MA (Hons.) in History from Edinburgh University and an M.Litt in Terrorism from St. Andrews University.

Colin is now involved in TV, Book, Radio and Video Games and also does a lot with charity being involved as Ambassador for charities working to help veterans, such as the Lee Rigby Foundation, Pilgrim Bandits and NSPCC among others. He has also founded his own charity Who Dares Cares that aims to link and support veterans as well as others that encounter stress.

Colin writes and edits articles on military and terrorism, as well as local community issues. In addition he provides risk consultancy services on a project basis.