page_title: Ben Roberts-Smith
section_title: Post-military
hierarchical_section_title: Ben Roberts-Smith / Post-military
caption_attribution_description: English: Victoria Cross Recipient Wreath Laying Ceremony, hosted by Mr. James R. Gemmell, Arlington’s, Deputy Superintendent, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, on February 13, 2012, at Arlington National Cemetery, Joint Base Myer- Henderson Hall, Fort Myer, VA.( U.S. Army Photo by Mr. Gregory L. Jones / AMVID )
context_page_description: Benjamin Roberts-Smith, VC, MG is an Australian businessman, former Australian Army soldier and a recipient of the Victoria Cross for Australia, the highest award in the Australian honours system. Roberts-Smith was awarded the VC for his actions during a helicopter assault into Tizak on 11 June 2010 as part of an offensive in the Shah Wali Kot region while serving with the Special Air Service Regiment in Afghanistan. The medal, together with his Medal for Gallantry awarded during a tour of Afghanistan in 2006, made Roberts-Smith the most highly decorated serving member of the Australian Defence Force. He was presented with the VC by the Governor-General of Australia, Quentin Bryce, at a ceremony in Perth on 23 January 2011. He was also later awarded a Commendation for Distinguished Service for his leadership as a patrol commander during a 2012 tour of Afghanistan.
  Roberts-Smith left the full-time army in 2013 to study business at the University of Queensland. In 2014 he was appointed chair of the National Australia Day Council and made deputy general manager of the regional television network Seven Queensland.
context_section_description: In October 2013, Roberts-Smith formally announced that he was leaving the full-time Army for a career in business, but will continue to serve in the Army Reserve. In a press conference, Roberts-Smith stated that he was studying a Master of Business Administration at the University of Queensland, and intended to pursue a corporate career.
  On 26 January 2014, Roberts-Smith was awarded the Commendation for Distinguished Service as part of the 2014 Australia Day Honours. The award arose from a 2012 tour of Afghanistan, in which Roberts-Smith "distinguished himself as an outstanding junior leader on more than 50 high risk" operations.
  In April 2015, Ben Roberts-Smith was appointed deputy general manager of regional television network, Seven Queensland. He was offered the job when Neil Mooney, general manager of Seven Queensland, saw his potential while he was undertaking leadership seminars for the station. In July that year he was promoted to general manager. In April 2016 Seven Brisbane was added to his responsibilities after the retirement of the long time General Manager.
  From 2014 to 2017 he was chair of the National Australia Day Council, an Australian Government-owned social enterprise.
  In 2015, Roberts-Smith recorded "Lest We Forget" with Lee Kernaghan for his album Spirit of the Anzacs.
caption: Ben Roberts-Smith placing a wreath in front of Tomb of the Unknowns.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4256", "Image ImageLength": "2832", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "Victoria Cross Recipient Wreath Laying Ceremony, hosted by Mr. James R. Gemmell, Arlington\u2019s, Deputy Superintendent, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, on February 13, 2012, at Arlington National Cemetery, Joint Base Myer- Henderson Hall, Fort Myer, VA.\n( U.S. Army Photo by Mr. Gregory L. Jones / AMVID )", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3S", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:02:14 16:35:37", "Image Artist": "Mr. Gregory L. Jones", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "664", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1380", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1494", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8234", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:02:13 11:14:04", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:02:13 11:14:04", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "477741/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6918863/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "119/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "190", "EXIF SubSecTime": "82", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "82", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "82", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1198", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1348", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "190", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}