General (ret.) Chris Badia

CEO

Five-Star Strategy and Defence LLC

Chris Badia was in his last military assignment Deputy Commander of NATO's Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, making him the highest-ranking German soldier in the Alliance. The four-star general has left the Bundeswehr after more than 40 years of service and is now the owner of his own strategy consultancy. He is a military strategist, passionate NATO enthusiast and experienced change manager.

Christian Badia (*1963) joined the Bundeswehr after graduating from high school in 1984 and completed his training as an Air Force Officer. He began his flight training in the USA in 1986 as a jet pilot on F-4 Phantoms. From 1988 to 1996, Badia was deployed in various roles in Fighter Wing 71 “Richthofen” in Wittmund. From 1996 to 1998 he was Commander of the 1st Fighter Squadron. From 1998 to 2000, he completed the 43rd General Staff Course at the German Armed Forces Command and Staff College. Badia then served as Personal Staff Officer to the Commander/Deputy Commander at the Allied Air Forces Northern Europe Headquarters in Ramstein and as Head of the Operations Department at the 4th Air Force Division Command in Aurich. From 2003 to 2006, he worked at the Federal Ministry of Defence in Berlin, first as a desk officer in the Armed Forces Joint Staff (FüS III 6), then as military policy advisor to Parliamentary State Secretary Walter Kolbow and finally as office manager to State Secretaries Kolbow and Friedbert Pflüger. From 2006 to 2009, he was Commander of the Fighter Wing 71 “Richthofen” in Wittmund. During this time, he also served in Kabul/Afghanistan from February 2008 to August 2008.

From 2009, he took over as Branch Head FüL III 1 (Conceptual Development of the Air Force) at the Air Force Joint Staff in Bonn. In 2012, Badia became Head of Department 1 (Future Development, Air Force Planning) at the newly established Air Force Command in Berlin / Gatow and moved back to the Federal Ministry of Defence in Bonn a year later, where he took over as Head of Subdivision I in the Planning Department. From 2014 to 2017, Badia headed the European Air Transport Command (EATC) in Eindhoven (Netherlands) before taking over as Head of the Military Aviation Authority. In 2018, Badia became Head of Planning at the Federal Ministry of Defence and was promoted to General and Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation in 2022.

Chris Badia is an expert in military strategy, defence planning and civil-military cooperation. At NATO, he shaped the transformation of the Alliance and developed strategies for future warfare.