Aija Kalnaja

Deputy Executive Director for Capabilities (DED-CAP) FRONTEX

Aija Kalnaja, Deputy Executive Director for Capabilities (DED-CAP), was serving as the Executive Director ad interim as of 1 July 2022 until 28 February 2023. Before taking up the position of Deputy Executive Director, Ms Kalnaja worked as the Director of Capacity Building Division, where she was responsible for pooling and managing the necessary capabilities from Member States and the agency to carry out operations at the external borders, in the pre-frontier area and in third countries. Prior to joining Frontex, she was Head of Operations Department and Head of Training Unit at CEPOL, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training. Ms Kalnaja has the professional experience of working in various public administration positions within the State Police of Latvia, including Deputy Chief of Police, Police Attaché to the United Kingdom in London, and Head of Sirene Bureau. Ms Kalnaja holds a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Latvia.