General Fernando Alejandre

He was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1956. He received his commission from the Spanish Military Academy in 1979 to the Corps of Engineers. As a junior officer, LTG Alejandre was a Sapper Platoon Leader in the Airborne Brigade – the same Brigade in which he would go on to Command a Combat Engineer Company as Captain. After graduating from the Army General Staff College, he stayed on to be a tactical instructor from 1994 to 1995. From there, he was selected as Assistant Military Attaché to the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C.

Having been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and returning to Spain, he served as Chief of Staff for the Engineer Brigade, and three years later as an operational planner at the Army Headquarters Operations Center. In 2003, he became Chief G-3 at the Rapid Reaction Division HQ in Madrid. As a Colonel, he commanded the 12th Engineer Regiment in Zaragoza before being selected to serve as the military advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Madrid.

Selected for Brigadier General in 2010, he assumed the duties of Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations at Army HQ where he was responsible for planning and conducting the Spanish Army's contribution to ISAF and other operations. Promoted to MG he assumed the duties of Deputy Chief of Staff, Support (later Resources) at SHAPE in September 2012 taking care of a large portfolio ranging from Redeployment of ISAF to the Readiness Action Plan and the Deployability Concept. He then assumed duties of Deputy Commander, Joint Forces Command Brunssum on 16 October 2015.

His operational background includes a deployment to Iraq in 1991, a tour as Chief Engineer for the Spanish Task Force in Bosnia during 1993 and, in 2003, he was the JOC Director at HQ KFOR in Film City, Pristina.

An alumnus of the NATO Defense College and an honor graduate of the US Army Engineer School, he is the recipient of several Spanish decorations and the US Army Meritorious Service Medal.

He and his wife Eva, who he married "some" years ago, have three sons (33, 31 and 14) and, since December 2014, a grandson. He is very proud of his long family tradition of service in the Spanish Army - a service continued by his two eldest sons who are Infantry Company Commanders in his dearest "Almogavares VI" Airborne Brigade.