CV of Martti Ahtisaari

 

Mr. Ahtisaari was elected President of the Republic of Finland in February 1994. He held office from the 1st of March 1994 to the 29th of February 2000. Upon leaving office, Mr. Ahtisaari founded the Crisis Management Initiative, where he is the Chairman of the Board. Between 2000 and 2008 Martti Ahtisaari has taken various tasks involved in peace mediation and conflict resolution. In 2005 he facilitated the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. Between 14 November 2005 and 29 February 2008 Mr. Ahtisaari acted as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo. Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2008.

Professional History:

Martti Ahtisaari has served most of his career as civil servant in the Finnish Foreign Ministry and the United Nations.
Various posts in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland 1965-1973

Ambassador of Finland to the United Republic of Tanzania 1973-1976, accredited to Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique (1975- 1976)

Member of the Senate of the UN Institute for Namibia 1975-1976
United Nations Commissioner for Namibia 1977-1981
Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia 1978-1988

Under-Secretary of State in charge of International Development Co-operation in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland 1984-1986
Under-Secretary General in the UN for Administration and Management 1987-1991, leading the UN operation (UNTAG) in Namibia 1989-1990

State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland 1991-1993

Chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Working Group of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia 1992-1993 and as Special Adviser to the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia and to the Secretary General's Special Representative for former Yugoslavia in 1993

President of the Republic of Finland 1994-2000

Post – presidential tasks

After leaving the office of the President, Martti Ahtisaari founded an NGO, Crisis Management Initiative. Most of his post-presidential have dealt with conflict resolution, crisis management and peace mediation.


Inspector of the IRA's arms' dumps with fellow inspector Cyril Ramaphosa 2000
Chair of an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq 2003
Personal Envoy of the OSCE CiO for Central Asia 2003-2004
UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa 2003-2005

Facilitator in the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement in 2005. The process lead to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that ended the three decade-long conflict in Aceh.

Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo 2005-2008

Current tasks

Chairman of the Board, Crisis Management Initiative
Co-Chair in European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR): http://www.ecfr.eu/
Chairman of the Independent Commission on Turkey examining the challenges and opportunities presented by Turkey's possible membership in the European Union: http://www.independentcommissiononturkey.org/
Director-At-Large of the ImagineNations Group: http://www.imaginenations.org/Home.aspx
Member of the Board of Trustees of Silatech: http://www.silatech.com/en
Member of the Elders: http://www.theelders.org/
Member of the Prize Committee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation: http://www.moibrahimfoundation.org/en
Member of the International Senior Advisory Board of West Asia North Africa (WANA) Regional forum

In Finland, President Ahtisaari is active on the corporate governing board of Elcoteq SE and acts as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Finnish National Opera.

Education

Mr Ahtisaari graduated from the University of Oulu, Finland in 1959 and received an Honorary Doctorate (Pedagogy) from his university in 1989. He holds 19 Honorary Doctorates from different fields all over the world.

Awards

President Ahtisaari has received numerous awards and decorations:
Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award (2000)
Hessen Peace Prize (2000)
J. William Fulbright Award for International Understanding (2000)
Highest Acknowledgement of the Together for Peace Foundation (2000)
European Peacebuilder Award from the European Centre for Common Ground (2003)
Euro-Atlantic Bridge Prize from the European Foundation for Culture (2003)
Tribute of Appreciation by the Department of the State of the USA (2005)
Gold Medal from the American-Scandinavian Foundation (2006)
Common Humanity Award from the Friends of the United Nations (2006)
Manfred Wörner Medal of the German Ministry of Defense (2007)
Geuzenmedal of the Geuzen Resistance 1940-1945 Foundation (2008)
Delta Prize for Global Understanding of the University of Georgia and Delta Air Lines (2008) Chairman's Award of the International Crisis Group for outstanding contributions to conflict prevention and resolution in Europe, Asia and Africa (2008)
UNESCO Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize (2008)
Nobel Peace Prize (2008)
Golden Medal of Independence of the President of the Republic of Kosovo (2009)
Open Society Prize of the Central European University, Budapest (2009)

In 2002 he was appointed as an Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia. In 2004 he was awarded with the Order of the Companions of Oliver Tambo (Supreme Companion) by South Africa. He is an Honorary Citizen of Namibia.