Rear Admiral Søren Kjeldsen

Rear admiral Søren Kjeldsen began his career in the Danish Defence in 1991 when he joined the Royal Danish Naval Academy in Copenhagen. He was appointed to lieutenant in 1995 and received his first assignment onboard the patrol vessel HDMS RAVNEN. His service at sea continued with four years along the Greenlandic coastline, serving as executive officer and commanding officer onboard HDMS AQPA and HDMS TULUGAG. In 2001, Kjeldsen was promoted to lieutenant commander and assigned as the operations officer onboard the inspection vessel THETIS.

In 2002, he was assigned to his first role as staff officer at the Royal Danish Naval Academy, where he served as class officer for two years before a one-year period as staff officer at Danish Task Group. After completing the Royal Danish Navy’s Senior Staff Officer’s Course in 2007, Kjeldsen was promoted to commander and served in managerial roles at the Danish Naval Command and the Danish Ministry of Defence until 2013. At the Naval Command and the Ministry of Defence, his managerial responsibilities were focused on strategy, planning and development. In 2013, Kjeldsen was assigned to the International Office of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Defence, where he served for three years as an administrative manager.

Upon his promotion to commander senior grade in 2016, Kjeldsen took command of the inspection vessels HDMS VÆDDEREN and HDMS THETIS, respectively. The following three years as a commanding officer were committed to the continued presence of the Royal Danish Navy in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions.

In 2019, he was accepted into the Naval Command Course (NCC) at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Upon graduating from NCC in 2020, he was appointed head of the IT and CIS Management Section at the Danish Defence Command and later became the head of the Planning and Governance Section at the same command.

Kjeldsen was promoted to captain (N) in 2021 and served for two years as the director of the Capacity Division at the Navy Command. In 2023, he was appointed to director of the Department of Governance at the Defence Command. His final role at the Defence Command was as the director of the Implementation Division before being promoted to rear admiral and assuming the responsibilities of Admiral Danish Fleet.

Kjeldsen resides in Ringsted, Denmark. He is married and a father of three.