Director of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats Matti Saarelainen leaving Centre for a new post

The Director of the Hybrid CoE, Matti Saarelainen, will leave his position and start working at the Finnish Security Intelligence Service starting from 1.10.2019. Mr Saarelainen has been leading Hybrid CoE’s work since April 2017. Prior to taking up the post, he was responsible for the establishment process as a project manager.

“I feel that the task to establish the Centre of Excellence is now completed and it is time to move on. This three-year period has been a really rewarding time for me. Establishing Hybrid CoE and launching the activities was a challenging but very interesting task. In April 2017, the first nine countries signed the Memorandum of Understanding, and Hybrid CoE now has 22 member states. We also engage in very close cooperation with the EU and NATO. I have every confidence at this stage in handing over the duties to a successor,” said Mr Saarelainen.

The start-up phase has gone very smoothly under the leadership of Matti Saarelainen and I would like to thank him for his input and wish him all the best in his new position,” said State Under-Secretary Jori Arvonen, Chair of Hybrid CoE’s Steering Board. According to Mr Arvonen, Hybrid CoE has proved invaluable over the past two years as a capacity-builder and actor in strengthening EU-NATO cooperation.

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Organization (Hybrid CoE)