Kostamovaara made chief of Border Guard

The government on Thursday decided to propose that the president appoint Major General Pasi Kostamovaara as the chief of the Border Guard as of 1 October 2019, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Interior.

The appointment is a fixed-term one until the end of 2024. At the same time, the government proposed that Rear Admiral Markku Hassinen be appointed Deputy Chief of the Border Guard from 1 October 2019 to 31 December 2024.

The president is expected to appoint Kostamovaara and Hassinen to their public posts on Friday.

Kostamovaara has served in the Border Guard since 1986, for example as a border management sapecialist at Finland’s Permanent Representation to the EU, commander of the Southeast Finland Border Guard District, chief of the Border and Coast Guard Division and chief of the Personnel Division at the Border Guard Headquarters. He is currently the deputy chief of the Border Guard.

Hassinen has been employed by the Border Guard since 1987. He has worked as a border management specialist at Finland’s Permanent Representation to the EU, commander of the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District and chief of the Personnel Division at the Border Guard Headquarters, among other things. He is currently the chief of the Border and Coast Guard Division at the Border Guard Headquarters.

The post of the chief of the Border Guard became vacant following the retirement on a disability pension of Lieutenant General Ilkka Laitinen, the earlier holder of the post. Military posts at the Border Guard may be filled without an application procedure.

Laitinen, who has been leading the Finnish Border Guard since last September, has resigned from his position due to a serious illness. He has been on a disability pension since 1 September 2019.

Laitinen had been serving in the Border Guard in various roles since 1985. He served for nine years as the first executive director of Frontex, the European Union’s border protection agency. Laitinen returned from Frontex in 2015 to work again for the Finnish Border Guard, first as director of International Affairs and then as deputy cxhief of the Border Guard from 2015 to 2018.