Director of the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Directorate at the European Commission. Ilkka Salmi has been the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator since July 2021. He plays a crucial role in driving forward the EU counter-terrorism priorities as agreed by EU home affairs ministers. Before that, he served as Director of the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Directorate at the European Commission since January 2020, and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior in Finland from 2018-2020. In addition, he was Director of Security at the European Commission from 2016-2018 and Director of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service from 2007–2011. Before joining the Ministry of the Interior, he served as Director of the EU Intelligence and Situation Centre and at the Directorate-General for Human Resources and Security of the European Commission.