Lt Gen Pasi Välimäki (born 1 September 1965) is a Finnish military officer, serving from 1 January 2022 as the Commander of the

Finnish Army The Finnish Army ( , ) is the army, land forces branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. The Finnish Army is divided into six branches: infantry (which includes armoured units), field artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, Combat engineering, engineer ...

Training and education

Välimäki completed his military service in 1986 at the

Armoured Brigade A brigade is a major tactical military unit, military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute ...

with reserve officer training, followed by staff officer studies at the National Defence University, from where he graduated in 1989. He holds an Executive Master of Business Administration from

Aalto University Aalto University (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economic ...

(2010), and Master of Science in National Security Strategy from the

National War College In the United States, the National War College (NWC) is a school within the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. History The National ...

in Washington, DC (2016).

Career

He has held various posts in the intelligence and signal corps, both in unit commander and training roles. Outside Finland, he has worked as UN Military Observer in the

former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

(

UNPROFOR The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: ''Force de Protection des Nations Unies'') was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and ...

, UNMOP), Chief of Intelligence of the Finnish Battalion Kosovo (

KFOR KFOR may refer to: * KFOR (AM), a radio station (1240 AM) licensed to Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, * KFOR-TV, a television station (channel 4 analog/27 digital) licensed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, * KFOR-TV (Nebraska), a defun ...

), Liaison Officer at the US Joint Forces Command in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

, and Deputy Chief of Operations, Regional Command North HQ,

ISAF The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was a multinational military mission in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. It was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1386 according to the Bonn Agreement, which outlined t ...

in Afghanistan. In 2017, Välimäki was appointed as the Commander of

Karelia Brigade Karelia Brigade (; ) is one of the three Finnish Army List of Finnish Army units, readiness brigades. It is currently based at Valkeala. With some three thousand soldiers it is the second largest brigade in Finland. It is the only Finnish brigade ...

, where he served until 2019. From there he moved to the post of Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, of the

Finnish Defence Forces The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) (; ) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy, and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime, the Finnish Border Guard becomes part of the Finnish Defence For ...

, until his appointment as the Commander of the Finnish Army from January 2022.

References

External links

Välimäki profile
at the Finnish Defence Forces website {{DEFAULTSORT:Välimäki, Pasi Finnish lieutenant generals People from Turku 1965 births Living people