Lt General  Nikolaos Zachariadis

Lt General Zachariadis was born in Athens in 1960. He joined the Hellenic Military Academy in 1977 where he graduated, as an Infantry 2nd Lieutenant, in 1981.

He has completed successfully the basic Special Forces and parachutists courses, the basic and advanced courses of the Army Officers Infantry School, the basic Intelligence course of the US Army Intelligence Centre & School and a number of other courses and seminars. He has served as a Platoon and Company Commander in Mechanized and Infantry Battalions from 1981 to 1990.

He was appointed as an instructor at the Army Officers Infantry School in 1990. He was deployed in Kuwait, following the end of the Gulf war, in 1991, as a Military Observer of the ‘’United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission’’ (UNIKOM).  In 1994 he graduated from the Hellenic Army War College and was assigned as Deputy Commander of a Mechanized Battalion.

He has served, in 1995, at the Hellenic Army General Staff/ Multinational Operations Branch responsible for the organization, deployment and operation of the Hellenic Forces during Operation ''Joint Endeavour’’ and the multinational Operation ''ALBA’’. He has served from 1997-1999 as a Staff Officer of the Hellenic Military Representative (HEMILREP) in the NATO Military Committee.

He was appointed as a Commander of a Mechanized Regimental Task Force from 1999-2001. In 2001 he served as Director of the Public Information Office and spokesperson at the office of the Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff (HAGS) and from 2002-2004 of the Chief of Defence.

He served from 2004-2007 a second tour of duty at the NATO HQ as a Staff Officer of the Hellenic Military Representative (HEMILREP) in the Military Committee. He graduated from the Hellenic National Defence College in 2005.

In 2007 he was assigned as the Branch Chief of the ‘’NATO Branch’’ at the Defence Policy Directorate of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff (HNDGS) responsible for the entire spectrum of the allied policy and operational issues.

In 2009, upon his promotion to Brigadier General, he assumed the duties of Director of the Crisis Management Directorate/HNDGS. In 2010 he was appointed as Director of the International and Strategic Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of National Defence.

He was promoted to Major General, in 2012, and assumed the duties of the Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Greece (NRDC-GRC) which was standing by at that year as the NRF LCC.

In 2013 he was assigned the duties of Director of the Operations Division at the HNDGS.

In March 2014 he was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed as the Military Representative of Greece to the NATO Military Committee and in July 2014 to the EU Military Committee.

He is married to Helena and has two grown up sons and one daughter.