Geder was born in 1958, and he joined the Territorial Defense of Slovenia, the predecessor of the Slovenian Armed Forces, in 1988. The Radenci native was also a member of the National Defence Manoeuvre Structure and is a veteran of the war for Slovenian independence. He holds degrees from the Ljubljana Faculty of Sport and the Army War College.

Geder has held a number of important positions in the Slovenian Armed Forces. He was a Commander of the 82nd Brigade (1999), the deputy commander of the Force Command (2006) and the commander of the Force Command (2006-2010). He was also the Deputy Chief of the General Staff (2010-2011), and the National Military Representative to NATO and the EU (2011-2015). He was promoted to the rank of Major General in 2010.

Geder is the eighth Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces. His predecessors include Janez Slapar, Albin Gutman, Iztok Podbregar, Ladislav Lipič, Alojz Šteiner, Dobran Božič, and Andrej Osterman. Osterman has not been on good terms with Defence Minister Andreja Katič; Osterman was on vacation when Katič called for his dismissal from the post after it transpired that the 72nd brigade of the Slovenian Armed Forces failed a major NATO combat readiness evaluation.

Geder committed to attracting new soldiers
Katič said after Geder’s appointment as Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces that Geder was the right man for the post under such circumstances, as he has long been critical of the ongoing staffing shortages in the military.

Geder said that not enough young people were joining the military and that the military profession had to be made a desirable career choice again. Moreover, he stressed that austerity measures had made the profession even less desirable, as the military was also lacking in equipment.