Jonathan Parish

Jonathan Parish took up the post of Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning on 1 February 2014.

Jonathan joined the British Army in 1976 and then studied at university in Sheffield and Aix-en-Provence as well as at the German Federal Armed Forces' University in Hamburg, gaining a dual honours degree in French and German. Following graduation from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he trained as a helicopter pilot. His command tours at flight and squadron level were in Germany and at regimental level in the UK. During his regimental command, operational commitments included deployments to Bosnia (twice) and Kosovo.

As a staff officer, he trained at the Army Staff College at Shrivenham and Camberley and then spent two years as Military Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations in SHAPE, Belgium. He served at the British Army's Land Command Headquarters where he was head of the concepts, doctrine, digitisation and operational requirements team. He also served in Madrid at the NATO Joint Headquarters where he was chief of operational support. In 2001 he was posted to Headquarters NATO where he led the staff responsible for the military aspects of Combating Terrorism and NATO Enlargement. He then spent a year as Policy Planning Officer within the Office of the Secretary General. In September 2004 he took early retirement from the Army and joined the NATO International Staff as senior planning officer and speechwriter to the Secretary General.

Jonathan Parish is married to Laurence, who is French, and they have 3 children. Their children are all bilingual, and their dogs are disobedient in both languages too! Jonathan Parish speaks French, German and some Spanish. He used to enjoy playing tennis and hockey but now has to content himself with jogging and swimming.