Merle Maigre, the current director of the CCD COE, will be moving on to new challenges next month, joining the rapidly expanding Estonian cybersecurity company CybExer Technologies, according to a centre press release.

Tarien served as Commander of the Estonian Air Force from August 2012 through July 2018, succeeded by Col. Riivo Valge.

A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Tarien earned his master's degree from the Air Command and Staff College of the USAF Air University. He also recently acquired a second master's degree in national resource strategy from the National Defense University.

Tarien has also served as staff officer with NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (ACT), as deputy director of the Regional Airspace Surveillance Coordination Centre, and as commander of the Estonian team at the BALTNET Regional Airspace Surveillance Co-ordination Centre in Lithuania.

The NATO CCD COE is a NATO-accredited cyberdefence hub focusing on research, training and exercises. The Tallinn-based international military organisation is a community of currently 21 nations providing a 360-degree look at cyberdefence, with expertise in the areas of technology, strategy, operations and law.

The centre is staffed and finance by member nations including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK and the US. Among other countries currently on the path toward membership are Australia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Japan, Norway and Romania.