Mr Jukka JUUSTI, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence of Finland and the Chair of the Security Committee, was born in 1955 in Oulu, northern Finland. 

Mr Juusti received his Master of Science degree from Helsinki University of Technology (Electronics and Telecom) in 1979 and his Master of Defence Administration from Cranfield Institute of Technology (UK) in 1989.

 With a strong military background, it was obvious for Mr Juusti to choose the Finnish Defence Administration to be his future employer. He has held various positions in the Finnish Defence Administration, especially at the Defence Command level. He has also served at the Mission of Finland to NATO and has held the NADREP (EU/NATO/WEAG) position in Brussels from 1999 to 2003. From January 2008 until the end of 2010, he also held the position of Armaments Director at the European Defence Agency (EDA).

 In February 2012, Major General Juusti retired from active service and from the Finnish Defence Command where he acted as Deputy Chief of Staff (Logistics and Armaments). From March 2012 until the end of 2015, 

Mr Juusti held the position of Director General of the Resource Policy Department and Finnish National Armaments Director (NAD).

 Mr Juusti was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence of Finland 1st January 2016. He is also the Chair of the Security Committee. The Security Committee is a permanent and broad-based cooperation body for proactive preparedness and its role is to assist the Government and ministries in matters of comprehensive security.

 During his long career, Mr Juusti has received several awards in recognition of his merits and achievements.

 Mr Juusti is fluent in English and Swedish and has a good knowledge of German.

 He is married to Mrs Tuulikki Juusti and they have two grown-up children.