Jacques Lemay

Background

About Jacques Lemay

Jacques assumed the appointment of Regional Coordinator for the relations with Armed and Security Forces for Near and Middle East (NAME) on 1st June 2023. Based in Amman, he has a regional role with a prime responsibility to implement the ICRC vision linked to the Armed and Security Forces in NAME. Prior to assuming his position in Amman, Jacques was ICRC Regional Armed and Security Forces delegate in Colombo from 2018 - 2022. As the Regional Armed Forces and Security delegate, he was responsible for enhancing an understanding of the ICRC’s role and its operational procedures and supporting efforts for the dissemination and integration of international humanitarian law and other norms that protect persons in situations of violence and armed conflict. Before Colombo, Jacques was based in Kigali, Rwanda, working for 4 years in several countries in the Horn of Africa, Great Lakes and Southern Africa. In this role, he nurtured a contextualized dialogue with the military of each country and developed and led trainings, workshops and seminars for the Burundian, Malawian, Rwandan, South African, Ugandan and Zambian units deploying on peacekeeping missions. Before joining the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jacques served for 38 years in the British Army with active service in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Djibouti, Falkland Islands and Kosovo. For his last military appointment, Jacques was the Commonwealth Representative to the UN Military Armistice Commission between North and South Korea and the UK Military Representative to Seoul, South Korea. Jacques commanded a multi-national Engineer Group of the International Stabilisation Force in Afghanistan and a Close Support Engineer Regiment on operational deployments to Afghanistan, Kosovo and Canada. Jacques is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Management Institute and a qualified interpreter in French. He holds a Master’s Degree in Defence Technology from Cranfield University and is a Bachelor of Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada.