RADM CHRISTIAN CANOVA – FRENCH NAVY Officer of Legion of Honour (OLH), Officer of National Meritorious Order (ONM), Overseas War Cross, Combat Operations Medal, National Defence Medal, Overseas Service Medal, United States of America Meritorious Service Medal, Saudi and Kuwaiti Gulf War Medals. Rear Admiral Christian Canova was born in 1956 in Algiers, Algeria and was commissioned into the French Navy in 1976. He received his military education at the French Naval Academy in 1978, United States Naval War College in 1994 and the Royal College of Defence Studies in 2000. He speaks a fluent American English and a broken Italian. As an Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) specialist, he spent the first part of his career in Combat Information Centres (CIC) onboard destroyers and frigates involved in blue waters operations during the Cold War from 1980 to 1989. But he is also quite familiar with crisis operations at sea, from Lebanon to the Persian Gulf and from Somalia to West Africa. He commanded corvette “D’Estienne d’Orves” in 1992-93, frigate “Ventose” in 1998-99 and amphibious & command ship “Foudre” in 2001-03. His staff experience includes a tour at the US Naval Doctrine Command in Norfolk, 1995 then at the French Joint Staff in Paris, NATO-EU Desk, 1997 and as senior staff officer for the French Military Representative to NATO Military Committee in Brussels, 2003. He was assigned from 2005 to 2010 to Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Head Quarters (SACT) in Norfolk,VA as the French National Representative and, after promotion to Rear Admiral, he became SACT’s Flag Officer for Future Capabilities Development. He was appointed Inspector of the French Navy (IMN) in September 2010. RADM Christian Canova married Corinne Senelle 33 years ago. They live in Paris but their three grown up children live in Los Angeles, USA; Montreal, Canada and Brussels, Belgium. .