Mr Patrick Fesquet was born in Ganges (France) in 1961. He earned a Master's Degree in law from the University of Nice in 1983 and an Advanced Master's Degree in International Supply Chain Management from the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) in Cergy-Pontoise. He was commissioned into the French Army Quartermaster Corps in 1985 and rose to the rank of colonel. He joined the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) in 2000 to take up the position of Head of Corporate Planning and Development.
In this capacity, Mr Fesquet led and finalized the negotiations with NAHEMA on NH90 helicopter support and with OCCAR on COBRA counter-battery radar support. He also conducted the preparatory negotiations for the support of the TIGER helicopter.
Before becoming the NSPA Director of Procurement, Mr Fesquet was the Director of Procurement of NAMSA. He was responsible for tailoring NAMSA's procurement function to the integrated logistics support requirements of new major programmes and NATO operations. He helped develop and implement the Agency's concepts for integrated services and performance-based operational real life support contracting. Under his leadership, Agency procurement (commitments) increased from 428.2 million euros in 2002 to 3.5 billion euros in 2019.
In 1999, as special assistant to the Central Director of the French Army Quartermaster Corps, he worked on the reform of Army administration.
From 1997 to 1999, as a logistician in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (New York), he was responsible for foodstuffs support for the peacekeeping operations in Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus. He was a member of the team that set up the logistics support for the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic.
In 1996, he was selected to attend the US Army Logistics Executive Development Course (Fort Lee, Virginia).
From 1987 to 1995, he was responsible for auditing Army and Gendarmerie units in the Marseilles area and subsequently Director of Administration and Finance for the 159th Alpine Infantry Regiment in Briançon.
He was deployed as the 1st Combat Helicopter Regiment's Director of Administration and Finance (Saudi Arabia and Iraq – 1990-1991) and as Assistant Director of the French UNPROFOR contingent commissariat (Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina – 1994-1995). Other assignments took him to Kuwait and Lebanon.
Mr Patrick Fesquet has been made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur and Chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite. He was awarded the military medal for overseas operational theatres and was mentioned in divisional dispatches (Gulf War 1990-1991). He holds the Overseas Medal (Middle-East), Saudi and Kuwaiti medals for the Liberation of Kuwait, and UNHQ and UNPROFOR medals.
He is married, with two children, and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Higher National Defence Studies (Luxembourg).