Leadership Award Recipient

Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is the 13th President of the Republic of Finland. His inauguration took place on 1 March 2024.

Alexander Stubb was born on 1 April 1968 in Helsinki, where he grew up in a bilingual family in the neighbourhood of Lehtisaari. He spoke Finnish with his late mother, Christel Stubb (née Setälä), and still speaks Finnish with his brother Nicolas. With his father, Göran Stubb, he always speaks Swedish. Stubb started his education in a Finnish-speaking primary school, but changed to a Swedish-speaking school in grade 4.

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 in the United Kingdom. His thesis dealt with the flexible integration of the European Union.

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 Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, Alexander Stubb served as Minister of Finance until May 2016, when Petteri Orpo became Chairman of the National Coalition Party. In August 2017, Stubb took up the position of Vice-President of the European Investment Bank.

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. He took a leave of absence in October 2023 to run for President of Finland.

In 2017, 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.

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. Alexander Stubb co-authored his biography with Karo Hämäläinen in 2017. Over the years, he has also written numerous column series for Finland’s largest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Finnair’s in-flight magazine Blue Wings, the Finnish weekly magazine Apu, the Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri and the Financial Times.

Stubb has been married to Attorney Suzanne Innes-Stubb, who is a British and Finnish citizen, since 1998. The couple has two adult children, Emilie and Oliver. The family also includes a cat, Milo.

Stubb participates in and follows a wide variety of sports. He has played ice hockey, football and handball as well as golf, in which he made it to the national team. Currently, Stubb’s hobbies include cycling, swimming, running and skiing as well as triathlon, in which he has competed regularly.

Stubb is additionally an enthusiastic friend of literature who reads versatile works ranging from political philosophy to biographies.