Toomas Hendrik Ilves President of Estonia Date of Birth: 26.12.1953 Country: Sweden

1. Biography of Toomas Hendrik Ilves
2. Career in Estonia

Biography of Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of Estonia, was elected to this position in late September. He is the third head of state since Estonia's independence from the Soviet Union and the fourth in the history of Estonian statehood. Ilves was born on December 26, 1953, in Stockholm, but grew up in the United States, where his parents moved in the mid-1950s. He graduated from Columbia and Pennsylvania Universities with a degree in psychology. From 1984 to 1993, he worked as an analyst and head of broadcasting in Estonian at Radio Free Europe.

Career in Estonia

Ilves has been in Estonia since 1993. He served as Estonia's Ambassador to the United States, Canada, and Mexico from 1993 to 1996. He held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2002. Unlike his predecessors in the highest state position, the new president is not only passionate about bow ties but also speaks English better than Estonian and does not know Russian at all. Since the leaders of Latvia and Lithuania are also representatives of overseas emigration, it will be easier for them to communicate in a more familiar language. With the election of Ilves, as noted by former Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Birkavs, the United States has completed the so-called "Marshall Ring" in the Baltic states, placing representatives of the diaspora with a previous American citizenship at the helm of these countries.