Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe/Seventh Army

A native of Quincy, Florida, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned in the Infantry.

After his first assignment as an Infantry Lieutenant in Germany, he commanded Infantry units at the Company, Battalion and Brigade levels at the 101st Airborne Division and in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. His most recent operational assignment was as Director of Operations, Regional Command South, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Lt. Gen. Hodges has also served in a variety of Joint and Army Staff positions to include Tactics Instructor at the Infantry School; Chief of Plans, 2nd Infantry Division in Korea; Aide-de-Camp to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe; Army Congressional Liaison Officer; Task Force Senior Observer-Controller at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, LA; Coalition/Joint -3 (CJ3) of Multi-National Corps-Iraq in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM; Chief of Staff, XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg; and Director of the Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the Joint Staff; Chief of Legislative Liaison for the United States Army.

His last assignment was as Commander, NATO Allied Land Command from 2012 to 2014.

Col. Kathleen Turner is a public affairs officer in the United States Army. She is currently assigned as the Director of Public Affairs, U.S. Army Europe. Previously she served as a War College Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace studying women who join violent extremist groups.

Prior to that assignment she was the Public Affairs Advisor to the 38th Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Ray Odierno, where she developed and managed his communications with internal and external media. Before working for the Chief of Staff, she was a planner in the Integration Division, Army Public Affairs, for the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs on the Army Staff.

Additional assignments include: I Corps Headquarters, Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, where she served as the Public Affairs Chief, the Public Affairs Planner, and the Deputy Public Affairs Officer. While serving with the I Corps, she deployed to Iraq for 12-months as the Corps Public Affairs Plans Chief for Multi-National Corps Iraq. Her other public affairs assignments include the Public Affairs Officer and Secretary of the General Staff for the Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She began her public affairs career while serving at the 25^th Infantry Division Headquarters as the media relations chief and rear-detachment public affairs officer while the 25th Infantry Division was deployed to Afghanistan.

Prior to her career in public affairs, Col. Turner served in a variety of positions in the United States and overseas. She served as a platoon leader for the 511th Military Police Company and as the Assistant S-3 for the 10th Military Police Battalion, Fort Drum, New York. While assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, she served as the Deputy Provost Marshal and as the Company Commander for the 58th Military Police Company.

Col. Turner is a graduate of the Military Police Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Public Affairs Officer Course, the Army Combined Arms & Services Staff School (CAS3), resident Intermediate Level Education (ILE) at the Command and General Staff College (CGSC), the School for Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) and the Army War College. Col. Turner is a graduate of Western New England College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, a Master’s of Science Administration degree from Central Michigan University and a Masters of Military Arts and Sciences from the Command and General Staff College. Col. Turner also participated in the MIT Seminar XXI Fellowship program focusing on national security and foreign policy issues.

Commander, Allied Land Command, North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Lieutenant General Darryl A. Williams is a native of Alexandria, Virginia.  He graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1983 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

A career Field Artillery officer, Lieutenant General Williams most recently served as the Commander, United States Army Africa (USARAF), in Vicenza, Italy.  Prior to this, Lieutenant General Williams served as the Deputy Chief of Staff G3/5/7 of United States Army in Europe, located in Wiesbaden, Germany; the Deputy Commanding General for Support for the 2nd Infantry Division, Republic of Korea; and Commanding General for the United States Army Warrior Transition Command and Assistant Surgeon General for Warrior Care and Transition.

In addition to these assignments, Lieutenant General Williams has served in key leadership positions at the tactical, operational and strategic levels to include Battery Commander deployed in support of OPERATION DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM; Commander, Division Artillery, 1st Armored Division and Fire and Effects Coordinator, 1st Armored Division deployed in support of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM; Deputy Director for Soldier Comprehensive Fitness, Department of the Army G3/5/7;  and while commanding USARAF in 2014, he was involved with OPERATION UNITED ASSISTANCE fighting against the Ebola outbreak in Liberia.

His military education includes the Field Artillery Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, Command and General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, and the United States Naval War College. He holds Masters’ degrees in Leadership Development, Military Art and Science, and National Security and Strategic Studies.

His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, the Parachutist Badge, Presidential Service Badge, and the Army Staff Identification Badge.

Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army

Lieutenant General Leo Beulen started his military career in 1978 at the Royal Military Academy in Breda. In 1982, he was sworn in as a Second Lieutenant with the Defence Artillery and posted as Platoon Commander to 12 Armoured Anti-aircraft Artillery battery in Nunspeet. He then had several command and staff functions up to 1991 with 15 Section Armoured Anti-aircraft Artillery in ‘t Harde.

From 1991 to 1993, he attended the Staff Service Course and Advanced Military Studies at the Netherlands Defence College. Major Beulen was then appointed Head, Operations Office, G3 Section with the staff of 1 (NL) Corps, where he worked mainly on large corps exercises, the preparation of units for deployments, and the amalgamation of the Netherlands and German corps.

From 1995, Major Beulen worked as the Chief Assistant to the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff. In 1997, he attended the General Staff Course at the Command and General Staff College in Leavenworth, Kansas (US). In 1998, Lieutenant Colonel Beulen returned to the Netherlands, where he became a teacher at the Netherlands Defence College, and chairman of the NATO working group Allied Joint Publication 3 (Operations). In 1999, Lieutenant Colonel Beulen was appointed commander of 25 Section Armoured Anti-aircraft Artillery. In 2000, he joined the staff of 1 Division as Head of Section G3, from where he was deployed to Bosnia Herzegovina in the former Yugoslavia in 2002.

After his return to the Netherlands, Lieutenant Colonel Beulen was posted to the General Policy Division of the Army Staff. In 2003, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and he became sub-project leader in the Consolidated Plans Branch of the Defence Staff Reorganisation project group. In 2005, Colonel Beulen was appointed Commander of the Air Defence Artillery Command, where he supervised the amalgamation of the school and the operational units of the Air Defence Artillery and the move of the Air Defence Artillery Command to the Peel region in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. In December 2007, Colonel Beulen was appointed Head of the J3 Operations Division of the Directorate of Operations of the Defence Staff.

In October 2009, he was promoted to Brigadier General and posted to the NATO Forces headquarters in Heidelberg as Director of the Joint Coordination Centre. In this function, he was deployed for a year as Head J3 of the ISAF Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. In May 2012, General Major Beulen returned to the Defence Staff as Director of Operations. In October 2014, General Major Beulen was appointed Deputy Commander of 1 (GE/NL) Corps in Münster, Germany. On 24 March 2016, he became Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army in the rank of Lieutenant General.

Lieutenant General Beulen is married to Annemiek. They have a daughter and two sons.

Chief of Staff, Swedish Army

Engelbrektson was born in Falkenberg, Halland, Sweden. He started his career as a conscript at Bohuslän Regiment in 1981 and reached the rank of Fänrik, (Second Lieutenant) in 1984. In 1985 his left hand was severely injured in an accident involving explosives. He graduated from the Swedish National Defence College in 1996 and went into the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST). He soon transferred to the Ministry of Defence, where he worked with the issues of military co-operation within the European Union.

In 1998 he undertook studies in Political Sciences in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2001 he was appointed Vice Acting Chief for the Gotland Military District. In 2004 Engelbrektson became Acting Commander for the Swedish battalion in Kosovo and was in 2005 appointed co-ordinator at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters, working with an eventual Swedish involvement in an EU-based battle group.

He served as the Force Commander for the Nordic Battlegroup from 2006 to 2010, January 2010 – August 2010: Military Advisor European Union and NATO Policy, Swedish Ministry of Defence and from September 2010 as Military Representative to the European Union and NATO, Permanent Representation of Sweden to the European Union. Engelbrektson was appointed Chief of Army starting from 1 June 2016.