Nicolae-Ionel CIUCĂ was born in Plenița, Dolj county, Romania, on February 7th, 1967. In 1985, he graduated from Tudor Vladimirescu Military High School, and in 1988, he graduated from Nicolae Bălcescu Land Forces Academy.
His schooling and training were directly related to his assignments, as he progressed from platoon leader to battalion and brigade commander in 2011. During this time, he took part in a variety of national and international operations and missions, including UNAVEM III Angola in 1996 as a staff officer, ENDURING FREEDOM Afghanistan (2002-2003), and ANTICA BABILONIA Iraq (2004) as Battalion Commander.
During 1993–1995, he graduated from the National Defense University in Bucharest, and in 2003 he achieved the PhD in Military Science.
In 2011 he was appointed Commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, and three years later, in January 2014, he took over the command of the Romanian Land Forces Staff. In October 2014 he was appointed Deputy Chief of Defence Staff. Since January 2015 until October 2019, he successfully accomplished the most demanding position within the Romanian Armed Forces, Chief of Defence Staff and in November 2019 he assumed the leadership as Minister of National Defence until December 2021.
He was designated Prime Minister in December 2021 and led the cabinet until June 2023, when he was elected President of the Romanian Senate.
Nicolae Ciucă is the Romanian National Liberal Party’s leader.
President of the Senate Ciucă has attended numerous courses throughout his career, the most important of which are: Instructor for Peacekeeping Operations Course in Turkey, Joint and multinational operations Course, Civil-Military Cooperation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Course, Florida/USA, US War College in 2006.
In addition to his studies and training, he participated in several national and international exercises, including Blue Danube 2000, Dynamic Response Kosovo, ISAF 2003, and Eurasian Star 2010 in Turkey.
He was awarded The National Order for Merit in the rank of Officer, The National Order for Merit in the rank of Knight, UN Medal for participating in UNAVEM III Mission, The National Order for Merit of the French Republic, in the rank of Commander, The US Medal of Merit, The Medal of Honor of the Special Operation Forces of the USA.
He speaks English, he is married and he has a son.