Portal:Estonia/Selected biography/1

Toomas Hendrik Ilves (born December 26, 1953) is the current President of Estonia. He is a former diplomat and journalist, was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s and later a member of the European Parliament. He was elected to the post by an electoral college on September 23, 2006 and his term as President began on October 9, 2006.

Ilves was born in Stockholm, Sweden but his parents were Estonian refugees. He grew up in the United States and graduated from Leonia High School in Leonia, New Jersey in 1972 as valedictorian. He attended a bachelors degree in psychology from Columbia University and a masters degree in the same subject from the University of Pennsylvania.