Amjad Hussain was born in a village in Pakistan, came to the UK at the age of 5 and was raised in North West London. Keen to travel, develop as an engineer and avoid an office job, he joined the Royal Navy in 1976 in his first term at Durham University. He has sought variety in his subsequent career. Sea jobs have ranged from inspecting fishing catches in the North Sea to being the Weapon Engineer Officer of an aircraft carrier in the Gulf, whilst postings ashore have included: training junior officers; buying missile systems; and, in Whitehall, a strategy and finance post focussed on reducing the cost of naval support at the end of the cold war.

He was the Naval Base Commander Portsmouth for 31/2 years from mid 2002, a job akin to running a town, 2 ports and a major industrial complex. More recently, he was the Director General Weapons, responsible for all UK missiles, ammunition and artillery, and is now Controller of the Navy, responsible for planning all future warships, submarines, combat jets and missiles.