Lt. Col. Gareth Prendergast is currently the Chief Finance Officer of the Irish Defence Forces. He served as an Instructor in the Irish Command and Staff School from July 2011 to September 2015, instructing on Campaign Planning, Counterinsurgency and Information Operations. Gareth was commissioned into the Infantry Corps in 1990. He spent the first six years of his career on border duties between the Republic and Northern Ireland. He has deployed on seven operational tours of duties – in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. His most recent deployments were a 12-month deployment with UNIFIL Lebanon as the Deputy Chief Liaison Officer with the Israeli Defence Forces, the Chief J4 (Logistics and Infrastructure) in the Operational HQ of the EU Training Mission in Mali and the Deputy Head of Mission of the EU Monitoring Mission in Northern Macedonia. Gareth is a graduate of both the US Army Command and General Staff College and the Irish Command and Staff School. While attending these courses, he achieved a Masters in Military Arts and Sciences in Military History from Fort Leavenworth and a Masters in Leadership, Management and Defence Studies from Maynooth University. Gareth has completed a number of international courses including a NATO Information Operations Course; EU Security Co-operation Course; a NATO Resource Management Course in the NATO School, Germany; an Operational Planning Process Course in Turkey; and a Peace Support Officers Course in Sweden. Gareth holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and History (University College Galway). Gareth is currently in his final year of a PhD programme on History and Counterinsurgency in University College Cork (UCC). His doctoral thesis is focusing on the Irish National Army counterinsurgency campaign conducted during the Irish Civil War against the IRA and how it adhered to modern military doctrine.