Antonio Miguel Carmona awarded the NATO Grand Cross Serge Lazareff
The Spanish Air Force officer and pilot, Antonio Miguel Carmona, received one of NATO's highest distinctions, the Grand Cross, after receiving the Serge Lazareff Award at the Combined Air Operations Center of Torrejón de Ardoz (CAOC Torrejón), weeks after having also received the Mention of Aeronautical Merit from the Spanish Armed Forces, specifically from the Air Force.
The distinction, coming from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), which is the headquarters of the Allied Command Operations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was attended by several generals of the alliance.
The Serge Lazareff Grand Cross rewards service to defense in the military field in matters relating to deterrence, among others. The distinction bears the name of the former assistant in Europe of General Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower, the French military and jurist Serge Lazareff, who was also the right hand in legal terms of the first five NATO commanders-in-chief, between 1952 and 1967.
Aeronautical Merit
Antonio Miguel Carmona, economist, former deputy and nowadays manager of multinationals, also received from the Armed Forces on December 23, 2023, the Honorary Mention to the Aeronautical Merit by Resolution 762/00168/24, published in the Official Bulletin of Defense of Thursday, January 4, 2024, for his services to the national defense and in the reserve.
Among the countries he has visited throughout his life, the Libya of Colonel Gaddafi -weeks after the allied bombing-, Iran, Algeria, Western Sahara, the German Democratic Republic, Turkmenistan, several African countries, among many others, stand out.
A supporter of détente and trade with China, during the year 2023 he proposed in Beijing the holding of a new Bretton Woods II Conference in order to improve world monetary stability and economic relations between East and West.
Antonio Miguel Carmona, currently residing in Luxembourg, is currently a director of several multinational companies, some of them subsidiaries of the main funds of the Emirates.
A director of numerous companies, he began as Deputy Director of Marketing at Grupo 16 and has worked for several large companies, including as Vice-President of Iberdrola Spain, among others.
Doctor and professor of macroeconomics for 35 years, he was a member of parliament, councilman and candidate for mayor of Madrid. Perhaps his least known and most discreet activity has been as a member of the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Spain, an activity that has been doubly recognized this year by the Allied Command.
He is married to the actress, model and journalist Yolanda Font.