A native from the Black Sea city of Constanta, Commander Vlad began his navy career in 1989 as a 14 year old student to the Navy Military High School "Alexandru loan Cuza" and was commissioned as an ensign in 1998 as a valedictorian graduate of the Romanian Naval Academy "Mircea cel Batran".
After graduation from the Naval Academy and until 2010, Vlad served onboard several corvettes and frigates as surface, antisubmarine and Electronic Warfare officer undertaking other national assignments to the Fleet Command and Naval Operational Command primarily in Operations Division.
In 2011, he graduated from the Command College at Carol I National Defence University followed an appointment as Commanding Officer of Romanian TETAL class corvette Rear-Admiral Eustațiu Sebastian (264). During his tenure he fulfilled various national and international tasks including a deployment into the Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group.
Valentin was appointed in 2013 to the NATO Allied Maritime Command as Battle Watch Captain. In 2015 Valentin was promoted to the rank of Commander. Upon completion of his tour at MARCOM he returned to Romania as Chief of Intelligence to Frigates Flotilla HQ in Constanta followed by an assignment as Chief of Operations to Romanian Fleet Command in Constanta.
During the first semester of 2017, Vlad was appointed as Chief of Staff (COS) to Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) under the command of Rear Admiral Axel Deertz (DEU Navy).
Commander VLAD holds a master degree in Maritime and Multimodal Transport Management at Constanta Maritime University and in 2017 started his doctoral studies on Information and National Security at the Carol I National Defence University
Vlad’s international background includes a broad range of NATO, NATO/PfP bilateral, regional or multinational assignments along with participation in many different exercises such as BLACKSEAPARTNERSHIP (1998), BLACKSEAFOR (2005, 2007, 2010, 2012), COOPERATIVE PARTNER (1999, 2000, 2003), NATO SUMMIT (2004), NIRIIS 2007, POSEIDON 2019, RESCUE EAGLE (1998) and SEA SHIELD (2016, 2018, 2019) as Surface officer, liaison officer, staff officer, chief of staff or commanding officer.
His awards include the Romanian Military Emblem of Honor, Romanian General Staff Emblem of Honor, Romanian Navy Emblem of Honor, Romanian Military Emblem of Excellence 3rd class, the Honorific Insignia "Service in the Armed Forces" for his 15 and 20 years of service and German Navy Badge in Gold.