Brigadier General Lionel Meny Deputy Commanding General - Readiness
Brigadier General Lionel Meny was born in 1972 in Mulhouse, France. He entered the French Military Academy of Saint-Cyr in 1992 and was commissioned into the infantry in 1995.
His regimental service has included several assignments with armored infantry units as a tank platoon leader, infantry platoon leader and company commander with the 1er Regiment de Tirailleurs (1st Rifles) and later as Battalion S3 and then commanding officer of the 16e Battalion de Chasseurs (16th Light Infantry). He also served as chief OPFOR for the French Command Post Training Center for two years. Over 2016 - 2018, he was chief of staff for France’s Army Aviation brigade and, in 2021, he was appointed chief of staff of the 1st Division in Besançon.
His operational experience includes several deployments to the Balkans, as an observer with the European Union monitoring mission in Brcko, Bosnia, three operational tours in Kosovo as executive officer then company commander and finally, military assistant with Multinational Brigade (North) in Kosovo. He has also served in Africa, on Operation Licorne (Ivory Coast) first as a company commander and then as chief operations officer. In the Sahel, he has served as battalion commander, deputy chief of staff (operations) and Joint Force chief of staff with Operation Barkhane. He has also served with the United Nations in Lebanon.
Colonel Meny has served with the Armed Forces Strategic Command for Operations where he was responsible for French operations for Afghanistan. He has also completed an assignment as the chief of the joint operational center in Paris. He has served for two years as head of public affairs for the Army chief of staff.
His military education includes the German armored company commander’s course, the French Staff College, the Advanced Staff College of the Belgian Royal Academy and the French Center for Higher Military Studies (CHEM), which ran alongside attendance at the Institute for Higher National Defense Studies (IHEDN). His awards and decorations include the French Legion of Honor, the Cross of Military Valor, the National Order of Merit of Mali. He has been cited four times on operations.