Depuis le 1er septembre 2011, un commissaire général - et une femme - est affecté pour la première fois dans un poste à haute responsabilité au sein de l’OTAN.
Avec le directeur du renseignement et le directeur des opérations, le commissaire général Françoise Latour est l’un des trois grands subordonnés de l’amiral (USA) Samuel J. Locklear, commandant le Joint Forces Headquarter Command de l’OTAN à Naples.
Elle a été nommée au grade de commissaire général de brigade aérienne le 1er septembre 2009. Mariée et mère de 3 enfants, elle est chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur et officier de l’ordre national du mérite.
L'article en anglais pour nos lecteurs étrangers
Major General Latour was born on November 29th, 1956, in Limoges (Haute-Vienne). She gained admission to the Ecole Polytechnique (Defense graduate engineering institute) in 1976. She then served her military service year in the Army Logistics Corps and at the end of school chose to join the Air Force Commissariat and attended in 1979 the Air Force Commissariat School in Salon de Provence.
Her career has been mainly in staff and management information systems appointments. She served in staff positions at levels from regional to ministerial. From 1980 to 1986 she had diverse assignments (finance and budget, real life and clothing equipment, food service and procurement) at Air Commissariat regional directorates first in 2nd Air Region, Villacoublay AFB, then in Air Tactical Force and 1st Air Region. In 1986 she joined the Air Commissariat central directorate, materiel sub-directorate, Paris AFB as chief of technical division, Paris AFB.
She served four tours with management information systems responsibilities in Paris Balard AFB and Bretigny AFB: from 1988 to 1992 as technical division chief, applications division chief and deputy director of the Air commissariat IT service, Paris AFB. In 1995 she returned to that service as deputy director and was assigned there a third time in 1997 as director. In 2005 she was posted as chief of IT Bureau of the Air Commissariat central directorate, Paris AFB.
From 1992 to 1995 she was assigned as chief of administration, finance and troop support branch of Metz AFB.
In 1996 she served four months in IFOR, Bosnia as deputy director South-East Multinational Division Army commissariat directorate in Mostar.
In 2002 she took three years of leave without pay to follow her husband, appointed as French military attaché in Canberra, Australia.
In 2000 she was assigned to the Minister of Defence military office, Paris, as deputy chief then chief of the administration section. In 2007 she was assigned to the services administration modernization bureau, Joint services HQ, Paris, as section head then deputy chief. In 2009 she became deputy director of the Air Force administration and finance service, Paris AFB, and following the merging of the three services commissariats on the first of January 2010 was designated as assistant director, Air Force, to the Joint Services Commissariat Director.
Posted as Logistics Resources Branch Head within Joint Force Command Naples Resources Directorate (August 2010), she has taken the responsibility of Logistics and Movement coordination for all dedicated operations (Balkans, Active Endeavour, NATO Training Mission Iraq, Pakistan Flood Relief Support, NRF 16 & 17). From March to july 2011, she has been appointed, in addition, as Deputy Chief of Staff Resources Director for the operation Unified Protector (Libya). Since August 2011, she is the Resources Directorate Director.
Her military academic career includes : 1976: Ecole Polytechnique, 1987: military computer science engineer course, at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Techniques Avancees ,Paris, 1996: Joint War College, Paris
Major general Latour was awarded the cross of knight of the French Legion of Honour and that of officer of the National Merit Order.
(remerciements au SCA - Info Consuls 21 septembre 2011 et NATO Allied JFC Naples )
