Dalia Grybauskaitė is the first female President of Lithuania, inaugurated on 2009 and re-elected in 2014.
She served previously as Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance, as well as European Commissioner for Financial Programming and the Budget from 2004 to 2009.
In 2004 President Grybauskaitė was tapped to serve in Brussels as the European commissioner responsible for financial programming and budget. She was later selected the 2005 EU Commissioner of the Year. From 2001 to 2004 she also served as Finance Minister.
In 2000 Ms. Grybauskaitė was appointed Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister and took a leadership role within the delegation responsible for negotiating Lithuania’s accession to the European Union (EU).
After serving from 1996 to 1999 as the plenipotentiary minister at the Lithuanian embassy in the United States, she returned to Vilnius to assume the office of Deputy Finance Minister and became Lithuania’s chief negotiator with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
In 1991, she held posts in the Ministry of International Economic Relations and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1983 to 1990 she was a lecturer at the Communist Party’s training college in Vilnius.
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NAME
Dalia Grybauskaitė
BIRTHDATE
1 March 1956
EDUCATION
Zdanov University (now Saint Petersburg State University), Moscow Academy of Public Sciences
PLACE OF BIRTH
Vilnyus, USSR (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania)
RESIDENCY
Lithuania
LANGUAGES
Lithuanian, English, Russian, French, Polish
Kolinda Grarbar-Kitarović has served as President of Croatia since February 2015.
She began her career in 1992 as an advisor to the International Cooperation Department of Croatia’s Ministry of Science and Technology, later becoming an advisor in the Foreign Ministry.
In 1995, she became the Director of the Foreign Ministry’s North American Department, and she worked as a diplomatic counselor and DCM at the Croatian Embassy in Canada from 1997 to 2000; returning later to the Foreign Ministry as Minister- Counsellor. Elected to the Croatian Parliament in 2003, Ms. Grarbar-Kitarović was quickly promoted to Minister of European Integration in December of the same year.
She then served as Crotia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration from 2005-2008. In 2008, she was named Ambassador of Croatia to the United States, which she held until 2011.
From 2011 to 2014, Ms. Grarbar-Kitarović served from as NATO’s first woman Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy.
Ms. Grarbar-Kitarović holds a Master’s degree in international relations from the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb. She was also a Fulbright Scholar at the George Washington University, a Luksic Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a visiting scholar at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.
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NAME
Kolinda Grarbar-Kitarović
BIRTHDATE
29 April 1968
EDUCATION
University of Zagreb, Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, George Washington University
PLACE OF BIRTH
Rijeka, Croatia
RESIDENCY
Croatia
LANGUAGES
Croatian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian
Official Candidate for UN Secretary-General
Nominated by the Government of Bulgaria
February 11, 2016
Irina Bokova currently serves as the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria she graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and studied at the University of Maryland and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Ms. Bokova joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria in 1977 where she was responsible for human rights and equality of women issues. She was later appointed in charge of political and legal affairs at the Permanent Mission of Bulgaria to the United Nations in New York. She was also a member of the Bulgarian Delegation at the United Nations conferences on the equality of women in Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995).
As Member of Parliament (1990-1991 and 2001-2005), she participated in the drafting of Bulgaria’s new Constitution, which contributed significantly to the country’s accession to the European Union. Ms. Bokova was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Coordinator of Bulgaria-European Union relations from 1995 to 1997; Ambassador of Bulgaria to France, Monaco and UNESCO from 2005 to 2009; and Personal Representative of the President of Bulgaria to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).
Irina Bokova is an active member of many international experts’ networks. She is a President and founding member of the European Policy Forum. For many years she has worked to overcome European divisions and to foster the values of dialogue, diversity, human dignity and human rights.
As Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova is actively engaged in international efforts to advance quality education for all, gender equality, cultural dialogue and scientific cooperation for sustainable development and is leading UNESCO as a global advocate for safety of journalists and freedom of expression.
In February 2016, the Bulgarian government formally nominated Ms. Bokova as a candidate for the position of UN Secretary-General.
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NAME
Irina Bokova
BIRTHDATE
12 July 1952
EDUCATION
Moscow State Institute of International Relations,
University of Maryland, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
PLACE OF BIRTH
Sofia, Bulgaria
RESIDENCY
Bulgaria
LANGUAGES
Bulgarian, English, French, Spanish, Russian
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NAME
Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva
BIRTHDATE
13 August, 1953
EDUCATION
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, London School of Economics, Harvard Business School
PLACE OF BIRTH
Sofia, Bulgaria
RESIDENCY
Washington D.C.
and Brussels
LANGUAGES
Bulgarian, English, Russian
Tinatin Khidasheli is the first woman to be appointed as Georgia’s Minister of Defense assuming this position in May 2015.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in international law from Tbilisi State University and went on to earn a Master’s degree in political science from the Central European University in Budapest in 1996. Subsequently, Ms. Khidasheli was a human rights fellow at Washington College of Law and a world fellow at Yale University.
Following these fellowships, Ms. Khidasheli worked in a number of governmental and international organizations in her home country before assuming the presidency of the influential human rights group the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) from 2000 to 2004. During this time, Ms. Khidasheli also served as a member of the State Anti-Corruption Council from 2002 to 2004. The purpose of the State Anti-Corruption Council was to call into public question misdeeds of then-President Eduard Shevardnadze.
Ms. Khidasheli’s contributions to Council and activism helped bring about President Shevardnadze’s resignation in the country’s Rose Revolution of 2003. Following the Revolution, she served as Chairman of the Board of the Open Society Georgia Foundation from 2004 to 2006.
Ms. Khidasheli became a member of the Georgian Parliament for the Republican Party in 2012. While working within Parliament, Ms. Khidasheli served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration before her recent appointment as Minister of Defense.
When announcing Tinatin Khidasheli’s appointment, Georgian acting Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili expressed confidence in the new Defense Minister by adding that, “I am absolutely certain that she will succeed in leading Georgia’s relationship with Western institutions to the next level.”
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NAME
Tinatin Khidasheli
BIRTHDATE
8 June 1973
EDUCATION
Tbilisi State University, Central European University (Budapest)
PLACE OF BIRTH
Tbilisi, Georgia
RESIDENCE
Georgia
LANGUAGES
English, Georgian, Russian
Official Candidate for UN Secretary-General
Nominated by the Government of Croatia
January 14, 2016
Dr. Vesna Pusić is First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia. Dr. Pusić is an accomplished sociologist and politician, graduating in 1976 with a degree in philosophy from the University of Zagreb and earning a doctorate in sociology in 1984 from the University of Zagreb.
As an academic she conducted research at the International Research Group – IDE (1975 to 1979), the Institute of Sociology at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia (1976 to 1978) and since 1978 she has been associated with the University of Zagreb. Her research covers theories of industrial democracy and the sociology of politics. Dr. Pusić has also lectured at the University of Chicago, Cornell University, American University in Washington DC and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars.
In 1978, Dr. Pusić and seven other women formed the first feminist organization in SFR Yugoslavia, Žena i društvo. She was also a founder and director of the nongovernmental organization, Erasmus Guild (1993-1998), which promoted cultural democracy in post-conflict transition Croatia and the Balkans.
Dr. Pusić entered politics officially as a founding member of the Croatian People’s Party in 1990. After leaving for a few years, she returned in 1992 and later served as president of the party from 2000 and 2008, and later again in 2013. In 2000, she was elected to the Croatian Parliament and from 2003 to 2007 she served as the Deputy Speaker. From 2006 to 2012, she was the vice-president of the European Liberal Democratic and Reform Party and from 2008 to 2012 she was the Chairperson of the National Committee for Monitoring the Accession Negotiations between Croatia and the European Union. Dr. Pusić ran as the HNS-LD party candidate for president of Croatia during the 2009-2010 election, and served in 2013 as the party’s president.
In January 2016, the Croatian government formally nominated Dr. Pusić as a candidate for the position of UN Secretary-General.
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NAME
Vesna Pusić
BIRTHDATE
25 April 1953
EDUCATION
University of Zagreb
PLACE OF BIRTH
Zagreb, Yugoslavia
RESIDENCY
Zagreb, Croatia
LANGUAGES
Croatian, English, German
Raimonda Murmokaitė serves as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Lithuania to the United Nations. She is also Chair of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee through end 2015.
Ms. Murmokaitė earned her Bachelor’s degree in Romanic-Germanic Philology from Vilnius University in 1982. She went on to become an Edmund S. Muskie Scholar in Public Administration at the Monterey Institute of International Studies from 1992 to 1993 and a Chevening Scholar in Diplomacy and Security Studies at Birmingham University in 1994. That same year she joined Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Desk Officer.
During her 20-year career serving in Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Murmokaitė was appointed Head of the Western European Division and the Policy Planning Division (1996 to 1998); Director of the Department of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania (2003 to 2004); and Ambassador-at-large in the Minister’s Office (2008 to 2009).
Ms. Murmokaitė has also held the posts of Counselor at the Embassy of Lithuania to Italy (1998 to 2001) and Deputy Permanent Representative in her country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations from 2004 to 2008. From 2009 to 2012, she served as Director of the United Nations, International Organizations and Human Rights Department within the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was named Lithuania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in October 2012.
As accomplished Lithuanian diplomat, Ms. Murmokaitė was decorated as an Officier de l’ordre national du Mérite by France in 1997 and is a 2003 recipient of Lithuania’s Commander Cross of the Order of Merit.
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NAME
Raimonda Murmokaitė
BIRTHDATE
17 July 1959
EDUCATION
Vilnius University
PLACE OF BIRTH
Lithuania
RESDENCY
New York, NY
LANGUAGES
Lithuanian, English, French, Italian, Russian
Official Candidate for UN Secretary-General
Nominated by the Republic of Moldova
February 19, 2016
Ms. Natalia Gherman is a former Deputy Prime-minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova. She is a career diplomat holding the diplomatic rank of Ambassador. In June-July 2015 she was Acting Prime-minister of the Republic of Moldova.
Ms. Gherman began her long career in service to her country as the Second Secretary for the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova from 1991-2; then First Secretary for the Department of European Organizations from 1992-4. From 1994-7, Ms Gherman served as Counselor and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the OSCE and the UN Agencies in Vienna; from 1997-2001, becoming the Deputy Head of the Department of European Security and Political-Military Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova. Ms. Gherman served as Minister-Counselor of the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova in Brussels as well as Deputy Head of the Mission of Moldova to NATO from 2001-2. This led to Ambassadorships, first as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Moldova to the Republic of Austria as well as Permanent Representative to the UN Agencies in Vienna and to the OSCE. Representing her country to the OSCE in Vienna, Ms. Gherman has been a prominent contributor to the efforts of the Organization on identifying solutions to the unresolved conflicts in the OSCE area, at the same time mobilizing the potential of the OSCE community towards the resolution of the Transnistrian conflict in the Republic of Moldova in accordance with the International Law. From 2006-9, Ms. Gherman served as first resident Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Finland. For her merits in promoting relations between Sweden and Moldova, His Majesty the King of Sweden awarded Ms. Gherman the Royal Order of the Polar Star of the Kingdom of Sweden in the rank of Commander First Class.
As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova in 2009-13, Ms. Natalia Gherman was the Chief Negotiator on behalf of the Republic of Moldova for the Association Agreement, the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area and the visa liberalization dialogue with the European Union. For the successful negotiations of these crucial Agreements that paved the way for Moldova's European Integration, in 2014 Ms. Gherman was awarded the highest national distinction - the Order of the Republic of Moldova.
In 2013, Ms. Gherman was honored with dual role of Deputy Prime-minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. She also served as Member of the Parliament in 12/2014 - 2/2015, being member of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and European Integration. Since 2/2015 when the new Government was sworn in as a result of the Parliamentary elections, Ms. Gherman resumed her current role as Deputy Prime-minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Policy and European Integration.
Ms. Natalia Gherman was born in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. She received her BA from the State University of the Republic of Moldova and her MA in War Studies from London University's King's College.
She is mother to son Mircea Gherman and the daughter of Moldova's first President Mircea Snegur (1990-7).
In March 2014, Ms. Natalia Gherman was among seven most impressive women leaders in the world, selected by The Guardian UK for the ranking "Seven women to watch in global politics who are leading positive change all over the world".
In February 2016, the Moldovan government formally nominated Ms. Gherman as a candidate for the position of UN Secretary-General.
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NAME
Natalia Snegur Gherman
BIRTHDATE
20 March 1969
EDUCATION
State University of the Republic of Moldova, King’s College, London University
PLACE OF BIRTH
Chișnău, Republic of Moldova
RESIDENCY
Republic of Moldova
LANGUAGES
English, German, Romanian, Russian
Official Candidate for UN Secretary-General
Nominated by the Government of Bulgaria
September 29, 2016
Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva currently serves as the European Union Commission Vice-President for Budget and Human Resources. In this role since 2014, Ms. Georgieva negotiates and manages the EU budget, ensuring that it is invested in the best way to serve EU citizens. She protects the EU budget from fraud and corruption and develops a corporate talent‑management policy in the Commission, an organization with more than 33,000 staff members. Prior to this promotion, she served the EU as the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response since her appointment in February 2010.
She earned an MA in Political Economy and Sociology from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She completed post-graduate research and studies in natural resource economics and environmental policy at the London School of Economics and also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Known as a lecturer on economies in transition, Ms. Georgieva began her career in the early 1990s as an economic consultant and academic lecturer before joining the international economic and finance sector in 1993.
She served as Senior Environmental Economist in the Environment Division for Europe and Central Asia under the World Bank Group and continued to advance at the World Bank, becoming Vice President and Corporate Secretary for the Group. Ms. Georgieva has additionally served on the World Bank’s Board of Trustees.
Ms. Georgieva was named both “European of the Year” and “EU Commissioner of the Year” in 2010 in acknowledgement of her outstanding work following the Haiti earthquake and the floods in Pakistan.
When elected as a Commissioner to the EU, the European Commission President José Manual Barroso praised Georgieva when announcing his endorsement, stating that “Mrs. Georgieva has solid international experience and knowledge which is going to contribute significantly to her capacity as EU Commissioner.”
While serving as EU Commissioner in response to Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake, she made sure that the EU became the primary humanitarian donor to the struggling nation.