Alexander Stubb is the 13th President of the Republic of Finland. His inauguration took place on 1 March 2024.
Stubb he grew up in a bilingual family in the neighbourhood of Lehtisaari. After general upper secondary school and military service, Stubb studied at Furman University in the United States, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993. In 1994, he continued his studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he obtained a diploma in French language and culture. He went on to complete a Master of Arts degree at the College of Europe in Bruges in 1995. In 1999, Stubb defended his doctoral thesis in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Alexander Stubb has worked as a researcher at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU, and as a PhD researcher at the Academy of Finland. He has also worked as a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, as an advisor to the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi, and as a counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU in Brussels.
In 2004, Stubb represented the National Coalition Party in the European elections. He entered the European Parliament with the second highest number of votes in Finland. Jyrki Katainen, Chairman of the National Coalition Party, invited Stubb to become Minister for Foreign Affairs in April 2008, a position he held until the end of the government term in June 2011.
In April 2011, Stubb was elected to Finnish Parliament as a representative of the National Coalition Party. He was appointed Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade in June 2011 and held the post until June 2014. In 2014, Stubb stood as a candidate for the European Parliament and was elected with the highest number of votes in Finland. However, he did not take up his seat, however, as he was elected Chairman of the National Coalition Party in June 2014. Stubb then took on the role of Prime Minister, which he held until the end of the parliamentary term. In addition to this, Stubb served as Minister of Finance until May 2016.
In August 2017, Stubb took up the position of Vice-President of the European Investment Bank.
In the same year, former President Martti Ahtisaari asked Alexander Stubb to chair the Board of the Crisis Management Initiative, a conflict mediation organisation founded by President Ahtisaari. Stubb served in this capacity until February 2024.
In May 2020, Stubb took up the position of Professor and Director of the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
Alexander Stubb is the author of some twenty works on international politics, the European Union, observations on Finland and the Finnish identity, and physical activity.
