Stéphane Abrial,, is a French General who is the previous Commander of Allied Command Transformation based in Norfolk, Virginia, one of the two North Atlantic Treaty Organization strategic commands.
Education
General Stéphane Abrial graduated in 1973 from the French Air Force academy (the Ecole de l"Air), and in 1974 from the United States. Air Force Academy. He completed pilot training at the French Air Force Academy in 1976. Later that year, he attended the Air War College, at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
Career
From 1977 to 1991, he served as a fighter pilot both in France (in Cambrai, Dijon and Orange) and, from 1981 to 1984, in a West German Luftwaffe unit In 1988, he assisted the Greek Air Force in converting its first unit equipped with the Mirage 2000. In 1991, he took part in the first Gulf War as a fighter pilot and commander of the French Air Force"s 5th Fighter Squadron.
From 1996 to 1999, he served at North Atlantic Treaty Organization Headquarters, in Brussels.
In 2000, he became deputy head of the French President"s military staff, and in 2002 was appointed head of the French Prime Minister"s military staff General Stéphane Abrial received appointment by the North Atlantic Council as Supreme Allied Commander Transformation on 29 July 2009, the first European to be appointed permanently as head of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization strategic command.