Chief of the Defence Staff

BRIGADIER GENERAL GINTAUTAS ZENKEVIČIUS

Chief of Defence Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces

Brig Gen Gintautas Zenkevičius was born in Lithuania in 1962. He joined Lithuanian National Defence Voluntary Service in March 1991 while Lithuania was still under Soviet occupation. In September 1991 he joined Regular Service as an infantry officer and was commissioned in December 1991. From 1991 to 2004 he served in various command and staff positions at National Defence Voluntary Service starting from company commander, battalion commander, territorial defence region commander and finishing as Chief of Staff of National Defence Voluntary Forces.

Since 2001 he was involved in preparing for Lithuania‘s membership to NATO and worked on a few MAP cycles. He was ACOS J5 at Lithuania‘s Defence Staff when Lithuania became a member of NATO in 2004 and worked intensively on preparing for NATO Air Policing mission and adapting NATO Defence Planning Process for the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

In 2005 he planned and prepared Lithuania‘s PRT mission in Afghanistan and was the first commander of the PRT the same year.

From 2007 to the end of 2008 he was leading the first Lithuanian Armed Forces transformation Project preparing it and supervising its initial execution. The transformation involved changing the national defence planning process from threat-based to capabilities-based. Later on he assumed the position of Inspector General of the Ministry of National Defence.

In 2010-2013 he served at SHAPE in the position of Director of Management where he got a lot of experience and knowledge about NATO and ACO internal processes.

From summer 2013 to September 2014 Brig Gen Gintautas Zenkevičius was Director General Capabilities and Armaments of the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania. His responsibilities included Armed Forces capabilities planning, Armed Forces transformation and he was an Armaments Director.

From September 2014 to August 2018 he was Lithuania‘s Military Representative to NATO and the European Union.

Brig Gen Gintautas Zenkevičius completed the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College in 1999-2000, the UK Royal

College of Defence Studies in 2006, and Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics and Master of Arts degree in Defence Studies.

He is married to Snieguolė, they have two grown up children - daughter Milda and son Justinas.