Jiřί Šedivý, Ph.D.
Chief Executive, European Defence Agency

Before being appointed to his current position in May 2020, he was Special Representative of the Czech MFA for Resilience and New Threats. Prior to that he served as Permanent Representative to NATO (since September 2012). From December 2010 he was First Deputy Minister of Defence, Czech MoD. Before that he was NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning (October 2007 – November 2010). Prior to this, he served as Deputy Minister for European Affairs (January – September 2007), with the responsibility of co-ordinating the development of priorities of the Czech EU Presidency, and as Minister of Defence, in 2006/2007.

He has a distinguished academic record. From 2004 to 2006 he was Professor of Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies, lecturing on such topics as defence sector transformation, civil-military relations and national strategy making. Between 1999 and 2004, he was Director of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Charles University, Prague, and Professor of European Security at New York University, Prague Centre. As an expert, scholar and opinion maker, he played an important role in the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO and EU.

He also acted as adviser to President Václav Havel (1997 -- 2002).

He was a member of a number of international expert teams and task forces preparing policy recommendations and security analyses, including for the EU, NATO and the US government. He is widely published in the field of international relations and security.

Born in 1963, Jiří Šedivý is a graduate of Charles University, Prague (Ph.D. in Political Science, 1999), and of King’s College, London (M.A. in War Studies, 1995).

He is fluent in English and Slovak, has a solid working-level French (B2) and speaks some Russian.