Lieutenant General Jeremiah (Jerry) Mateparae, ONZM
Lieutenant General Mateparae enlisted into the Regular Force of the New Zealand Army in June 1972. After three years service as a soldier, he graduated in December 1976 from the Officer Cadet School at Portsea Australia, to the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment (RNZIR).
Lieutenant General Mateparae has served in New Zealand’s Infantry Battalions and the New Zealand Special Air Service. He commanded the First Battalion RNZIR, the Army’s Land Command, later re-designated the Land Component Command (December 1999 – February 2002) and the New Zealand Army as the Chief of Army (February 2002 – April 2006). On 1 May 2006 Lieutenant General Mateparae was promoted to his current rank, and took up the appointment of Chief of Defence Force.
Lieutenant General Mateparae has had two operational postings to peace support missions. He commanded a combined-force Truce Monitoring Group on the island of Bougainville in 1998, and the United Nations Observer Group in Southern Lebanon from May 1994 to May 1995. From December 1999 to July 2001, he was the Joint Commander for New Zealand forces in East Timor.
Lieutenant General Mateparae is a graduate of the British Army Staff College, Camberley, the Australian Joint Services Staff College, the USCINCPAC Symposium on East Asian Security and the Royal College of Defence Studies in the United Kingdom.
He has a Master of Arts with First Class Honours from the University of Waikato, and has been recognised by that university with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008. He is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management.
Lieutenant General Mateparae was made an Additional Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the January 1999 New Year’s Honours List for his service in Bougainville.
Lieutenant General Mateparae is married to Janine, and they have five children. His interests include reading, (watching) sport, homeopathy and keeping fit.
For more on Lieutenant General Mateparae, see " At Defence's Helm."
For Lieutenant General Mateparae's latest message see "Meeting the Challenge and more"