Major General (Retired) Craig Furini, AM, CSC Brigadier Craig Furini attended the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Royal Military College and was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery in 1990. He initially served as a Lieutenant with 8th/12th Medium Regiment, returning to the Regiment in 2000 as a Battery Commander and again in 2007 as the Commanding Officer.

As Commanding Officer he deployed the first contingent of Australian Gunners to Helmand Province in Afghanistan. He also served as a Forward Observer in 4th Field Regiment and 26 Regiment (SP) (Royal Artillery) in Germany. Other artillery appointments have included student on the UK’s Gunnery Staff Course, and instructor at the School of Artillery. His final artillery appointment was Head of Regiment from 2016 to 2018.

As a staff officer he has experience at the Brigade, Division, Operational and Strategic level in the UK, where he was involved in supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Posted to Defence Intelligence organisation he was tasked to re-establish and initially lead the Afghanistan analytical team in support of the redeployment of the ADF to Afghanistan in 2005. He also served in HQ Joint Operations Command (JOC) OC where he was involved in overseeing ADF operations in the Middle East Area of Operations.

He was subsequently seconded to the National Security Staff in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as the Senior Adviser Defence Policy and Operations. In 2013 he completed the Defence and Strategic Studies Course before becoming the Chief of Staff to the Chief of the Defence Force. He was subsequently promoted to Brigadier and then Major General in 2018 as Commander Operation Sovereign Borders, Department of Home Affairs (on secondment). He retired in 2021.