British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed on January 24 new appointments in the British armed forces according to which Admiral Sir George Zambellas is to be appointed First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in succession to Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, in April 2013. Zambellas was born in 1958 in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, to a Greek father, Michael George Zambellas, and a British mother, Rosemary Frederique Zambellas (née Lindsay).

He studied at the University of Southampton obtaining two degrees, in aeronautics and astronautical engineering.