Giovanni Chessari
KEYNOTE
Italian Army in the Counter-Drone race
Col. Giovanni Chessari
Italian Army
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Col. Giovanni Chessari was born in Comiso (Sicily) in a sunny day of May 14th 1971. He is happily married with Ms Gabriella, they have no children but two lovevly dogs. Colonel Chessari is passionate for sports, practicing a lot of them, love running and swimming among all. He also loves to su er watching football on TV, being a big fan of Inter Milan. He speaks quite a fluent English, is capable of communicate in Spanish and able to survive in Portuguese. Colonel Chessari commenced his career within the Modena Military Academy, attending the 173th Course in september 1991. He subsequently undertook a number of further courses in Italy and abroad.
Throughout his military career, Colonel Chessari has participated in numerous operations and missions that have seen the Italian Armed Forces contribute to international stability, security and peace, and protect and safeguard vital and strategic national interests. In 1999, with the rank of Captain he participated in Operation Joint Forge as team leader of a multinational team with the important mission of armaments control in Bosnia. In 2000 he led a multinational team of the European Union Monitor Mission in FYROM (now North Macedonia). In 2004 he participated in Operation Antica Babilonia, in Iraq – Bashra, deployed as J9 coordinator for the Regional Command.
In 2013, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he was deployed for one year in the ISAF Mission at Kabul Airport as XO for the Director Of Current Operations in IJC (ISAF Joint Command). In all Ranks Colonel Chessari has commanded Air Defence specialistic Unit. He started as Captain in the 4th AD regiment, in Cremona and Mantua, with the HAWK missile system. Promoted Lieutent Colonel he took command in 2015as Group Commander of the 121st AD regiment, this regimenti was equipped with Stinger Missile. During this period under his command he led a firing live exercise in the international firing range in Creete. Promoted Colonel he is now the Director of the Italian Centre of Excellence Counter mini/micro UAS.
Colonel Chessari’s professional background includes the position of Chief of Sta of the Air Defence Army HQ this was his last assignement. He also gained a deep knowledge of NATO when assigned at the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Italy in Solbiate olona, here with two separate tour of duty was assigned in the in Operation Division first, and as Section Head Air Land Integration in his last appointment. His experience within NATO was completed with a tour of duty (2019-2022) at the Allied Command for Transformation in NORFOLK (VA). He was section head Lesson Learned there, his role enabled him to interact with both NATO and other international bodies, including Africa Union.
