Henri Bentégeat

Bentégeat graduated from the French military academy École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1967 and opted for the Troupes de marine branch. He held various staff and command positions - including several deployments to Senegal, Chad and Central Africa - until he took command of Régiment d'infanterie-chars de marine (RICM), which already was a professional regiment at a time when most of the French Army was still drafted. From 1990 to 1992, he served as Assistant Defence Attaché in Washington, D.C. and from 1996 to 1998 was commander, French armed forces, West Indies (Lesser Antilles). He served as assistant to the Chief of the Military Staff of the President of the Republic from 1993.

Bentégeat was promoted to the rank of Brigade General in 1995 and to Divisional General in 1998, when he became assistant to the director for strategic affairs of the French Ministry of Defence. In April 1999, he was made Chief of the Military Staff of the President of the Republic, was promoted to Général de corps d'armée on 1 September 1999 and to Général d'armée on 4 January 2001. He became Chef d'état-major des armées (Chief of the Defence Staff) in October 2002.

On 6 November 2006, Bentégeat took up the position of chairman of the European Union Military Committee by appointment of the European Council. His term ended on 6 November 2009, when he was succeeded by Håkan Syrén.[2]

Henri Bentegeat's education includes completion of the Junior Staff Course, Staff College in 1985 and of the Advanced Military Studies Course in 1992. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from La Sorbonne University in Paris and is a 1983 graduate from Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

In April 2023, he was elected to a seat in the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.

He is married and the father of four.

Bentégeats promotions:

• 1968 – Lieutenant
• 1974 – Captain
• 1979 – Major (Commandant)
• 1983 – Lieutenant Colonel
• 1988 – Colonel
• 1995 – Brigadier General (Général de brigade)
• 1998 – Major General (Général de division)
• 1999 – Lieutenant General (Général de corps d'armée)
• 2001 – General (Général d'armée)