Kersti Kaljulaid

President of Estonia, 2016–2021

Kersti Kaljulaid was the fifth president of Estonia, and the first woman and youngest person to hold the office. She led one of the world's most advanced digital democracies, a state where citizens vote, file taxes, and sign contracts online, and where self-government earns their trust by delivering.

She came of age in a country under Soviet occupation and reached its highest office in a free one. Not a career politician, she had trained as a geneticist, run a power plant, and audited the European Union's accounts before becoming president in 2016. Little known when she took office, she left it one of the most trusted public figures in her country.

After leaving office, she founded the President Kaljulaid Foundation, focused on democracy and the social costs of digitalization, and has continued working internationally to keep advanced technology in the service of free societies rather than authoritarian ones.