Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Dr Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga is President of the Club de Madrid and former President of Latvia (1999–2007). She was instrumental in achieving membership in the EU and NATO for her country and was Special Envoy on UN reform. She was vice-chair of the Reflection group on the long-term future of Europe, and chaired the High-level group on freedom and pluralism of media in the EU in 2011–12. In 2015 she was a member of two High-level groups on European security and defense. Dr Vīķe-Freiberga is a member, board member or patron of 30 international organisations, including the World Leadership Alliance, the Board of Trustees of the Nizami Ganjavi International Centre (Co-chair), and the European Council on Foreign Relations, as well as five Academies. She has published extensively and is much in demand as speaker.