Born to a Latvian émigré family, in 1971, in California, USA, Brigadier General Ilmars A. Lejins grew up in Sweden, was schooled in West-Germany and, after the end of the Soviet occupation, he returned to Latvia where he joined the Latvian Armed forces in 1993. Admitted to the Swedish Infantry Military academy, he graduated in 1996 as an infantry officer.

His career with troops has been on every level up to brigade command. Initially with the Baltic Battalion from 1996 to 1999, where he served as a platoon leader and as the second-in-command of the Latvian Infantry company. During this time, he deployed to IFOR/SFOR. In 2000, he assumed the task of setting up an Armed forces level (joint) professional NCO training system as well as taking up command of the newly founded NCO Academy. He later took command of the 2nd Infantry Battalion, where he was tasked to finalise the last conscription training and professionalise the unit. He served as an Infantry Kandak Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) leader for a demanding 9 months ISAF-tour in northern KUNAR, Afghanistan from 2009-2010.

In 2016, as the Commander of the Land forces Mechanized Infantry Brigade, a post twinned with being the head of the Land forces as well, he was instrumental to the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) battlegroup deployment led by Canada, in Latvia and to the successful integration of eight more nations, into an effective deterrence force.

His staff assignments have been on the Latvian Joint HQ level and at NATO. As Branch Head at LVA JHQ, his responsibilities included National Defence and NATO Contingency planning, Force/Capability development and bilateral/multilateral planning. During his time at the JHQ, he also oversaw and supported the development of the nascent Latvian Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) program. His NATO staff experience stretches from operational to strategic levels and now, the political-military levels. From 2013 to 2016, he served as the Branch Head for Military Cooperation, J9 at NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum, and most recently, (2019-2022) served as the Assistant Chief of Staff (ACOS) Joint Force Development at NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, Norfolk, USA. He assumed his current post July 2022.

He is a graduate of the Baltic Defence College, (HCSC), the United Kingdom’s Joint Services Command and Staff College (ACSC 8) and holds a MA in Defence studies from King’s College in London. Notable military courses taken, included the UN Junior Officers Course at SWEDINT and the UK Combined Arms and Tactics Course at Warminster. He has various LVA service, MoD and Armed forces awards, NATO medals, the Estonian Land Forces Cross, the US Army Commendation medals and is a Cavalier of the LVA state Order of Viesturs. Brigadier General Lejins is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.