Mr Udo Burkholder has held the position of Head of Mission since 18 May 2010. He served as acting Head of Mission from 1 January 2010 and Deputy Head of EUBAM from January 2008. Prior to this he accrued 30 years of experience within the Border Guard and Federal Police of Germany.

He began working for the Federal Police of Germany in 1978. and occupied a range of positions until 1991, at which point he was appointed Head of the Federal Police Human Resources Department at the Ministry of Interior. From 1995-1997 he served as Head of the Border Police at Frankfurt Airport and from 1997-2000 Mr Burkholder was again appointed to the post of Head of the Federal Police Human Resources Department at the Ministry of Interior. From 2000-2001 he was Head of the Border Police Command for Central Germany and on April 1, 2001 he was promoted to the position of “Inspekteur der Bundespolizei” (Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Police). He retired from this post on December 31 2007.

Mr Burkholder graduated from Johannes Gutenberg University, Faculty of Law. He served in the army from 1967-1968, his departing rank being Captain in the Military Police.

Mr Burkholder extensive in depth experience in cross border cooperation, particularly with Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Mr Burkholder has received medals of Honour for facilitating cooperation between Border Guard Services on the international level. He received personal awards from:

• The President of the French Republic, M. Chirac;
• The President of Romania, Mr Basescu;
• The President of Azerbaijan, Mr Aliyev;
• The Minister of Interior of Bulgaria, Mr Petkov;
• The Minister of Interior of Finland;
• The Minister of Interior of Estonia;
• The Minister of Interior of Poland;
• The Chairman of Ukrainian State Border Service, General of the Army Mykola Lytvyn;
• The Chairman of Georgian State Border Service, General-Lieutenant Chkheidse;
• The Chairman of Lithuanian State Border Service, General Stripeika;
• The Chairman of the International Border Police Conference, Lieutenant General Bendek;
• The former Commander - in - Chief of the Polish Border Guard, Brigadier General Kusmierczak;
• The Police President of the Czech Republic, Mr Martinu.