President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves

President of the Republic of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves was born on the 26th of December, 1953, in the Swedish capital Stockholm, and has spent much of his life living and working in a total of five different countries. The Estonian values prevalent in his childhood home, the education gained at one of the US’s best universities, the jobs connected with Estonia’s present and future over the last quarter of the century – this is what has shaped Toomas Hendrik Ilves as a person and president of a small European country in the 21st century. He has also worked as the Head of the Estonian desk, Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany and from 1993 to 1996 he served as an Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico. Twice he has held the post of Estonian Minister of Foreigns Affairs and prior becoming the President of Estonia, he was elected Member of the European Parliament.

From 2012 to 2014, at the invitation of the European Commission, he was Chairman of the European Cloud Partnership Steering Board. His interest in computers stems from an early age – he learned to program at the age of 13, and he has been promoting Estonia's IT-development since the country restored its independence. During recent years, president Ilves has spoken and written extensively at integration, trans-atlantic relations, e-government, cyber security and other related topics.

President Ilves has published many essays and articles in Estonian and English on numerous topics ranging from Estonian language, history and literature to global foreign and security policy and cyber security. His books include essay collections in Estonian, Finnish, Latvian Hungarian and Russian.
Follow him on Twitter @IlvesToomas and Facebook facebook.com/thilves