Major Robert Budimir Bekan

Major Robert Budimir-Bekan was born on 22 November 1977 and raised in Split, Croatia. He joined Croatian Armed Forces in 1996. Upon completing several NCO courses in 2001 becoming Sqd leader in an Infantry unit. After completing a college, he was assigned as a Platoon Leader in the Sapper Company, Engineer Battalion, Mechanized Brigade. He graduated as a 2 nd Lt from the Croatian Military Academy in 2004 with a Bachelor's degree in Study of administrative law. He holds a Master’s degree in the College of Applied Sciences in Safety from the University of Zagreb, Croatia (2008). 

After graduating he started with pre-deployment training as an officer for OMLT (Operational Mentoring and Liason Team) in order to be deployed at the end of September 2008 for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operation in Afghanistan. As a mentor of Infantry Company Commander, Afghan National Army (ANA) Maj Budimir-Bekan was deployed for six months in the Northern part of Afghanistan (Kunduz area) under the Regional Command North, conducting stability operations combined with ANA forces. The second deployment in 2010 lasted for 7 months and his role was to mentor and advise ANA Engineer Garrison Cdr in the area of Mazar E Sharif under the Regional Command North. He served for several years as a Plt leader and Sapper company Commander providing mobility, counter mobility, survivability missions, and sustainment engineering tasks in support of the Mechanized Brigade. Maj Budimir-Bekan has attended several NATO courses (EOD - Explosive ordnance disposal Course, Counter improvised explosive devices (CIED) course - Train the trainer, etc.) and numerous major domestic and international Field Training (FTX) and Live Fire Exercises (LFX).

During 2016 as a part of European Union Battlegroup (EUBG) he was assigned as a staff officer in FHQ (Force HQ) of EUBG, Strasbourg – France. As a part of FHQ, (Eurocorps) he was involved in planning combined and joint operations in the light of the comprehensive approach and was successfully certified after a challenging exercise cycle. 

Since 2015 up to 2017 Maj Budimir-Bekan was assigned as a training officer in S-3 section Mechanized Brigade. From 2018 to present, Maj Budimir Bekan is assigned to Engineer Battalion, Mechanized Brigade as an Deputy Battalion Commander. Maj Budimir-Bekan is married and has one child. He spends his free time doing all kinds of different sport but above all, he is a passionate trail runner.