Col. (ret.) Gintaras Bagdonas was born on September 5, 1965, in Kedainiai, Lithuania.
In 1991 he graduated from Kaunas University of Technology, Faculty of Energetics with an engineering sciences degree. In 2004 – 2006 he studied at the Institute of International Relations and Diplomacy at Vilnius University and holds an MA in Political Sciences.
In 2003 Gintaras Bagdonas completed the Senior Officer course at NATO Defence College, Rome, Italy. He also studied at the Baltic Defence College, completed courses on intelligence and security in the United States, United Kingdom.
In September 2021 Col Bagdonas retired from the Armed Forces. Prior to that he completed assignment as Military Representative of NATO Military Staff in Georgia and Liaison Officer in the South Caucasus. Before he held positions, including Director of NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence; two-year assignment as a Minister Counsellor and a Head of the Special Mission of the Republic of Lithuania to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Kabul under the subordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. He served as a Commandant of the General Jonas Zemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania; the Director of Intelligence of the EU Military Staff, (interim Brigadier General Rank) in Brussels, Belgium; the Director of the Second Investigation Department (Military Intelligence and Security) under the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania. He also served as Defence Attaché of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republics of Latvia and Estonia.
Gintaras Bagdonas joined the newly established Lithuanian National Voluntary Defence Service (National Guard) in 1991. In 1994-1995 he participated in the peacekeeping mission led by UNPROFOR in Croatia within the Danish Battalion.
Col Bagdonas has published several articles on different aspects of strategic partnership and international relations and security. He lectured on “Intelligence and State” for the Military Diplomacy Master Students at the Military Academy of Lithuania.
