[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.21.2″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Toomas Hendrik Ilves served as the fourth President of Estonia from 2006 to 2016, previously served in the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2002. He was key in driving the initiatives in e-government and cyber security for which the country has been acknowledged as a world-leader.<\/p>\n
From 1993 to 1996, Ilves served in Washington as the Ambassador of the Republic of Estonia to the United States of America and Canada. During this time he initiated with education minister Jaak Aaviksoo the Tiger Leap initiative to computerize and connect all Estonian schools online.<\/p>\n
In 2004, Ilves was elected a Member of the European Parliament, where he was vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee. As an MEP, he initiated the Baltic Sea Strategy that later was implemented as official regional policy of the European Union.<\/p>\n
Toomas Ilves was elected President of the Republic of Estonia in 2006, and was re-elected for a second term in office in 2011. In June 2017, President Ilves was awarded the Reinhard Mohn Prize entitled, \u201cSmart Country: Connected. Intelligent. Digital.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his presidency, Ilves was appointed to serve in several high positions in the field of ICT in the European Union. He served as Chairman of the EU Task Force on eHealth from 2011 to 2012. From 2012 to 2014, at the invitation of the European Commission, he was Chairman of the European Cloud Partnership Steering Board. From 2014 to 2015, he was the co-chair of the advisory panel of the World Bank\u2019s World Development Report 2016 \u201cDigital Dividends\u201d and since June 2014, the chair of World Economic Forum\u2019s Global Agenda Council on Cyber Security.<\/p>\n
Since November 2016, Ilves has co-chaired the Global Futures Council on Blockchain Technology, a working group set up by the World Economic Forum focusing on how blockchain technology can be used to improve the security of the internet.<\/p>\n
His interest in computers started at an early age \u2013 he learned to program at the age of 13, and he has been promoting Estonia\u2019s IT-development since the country restored its independence. During recent years, Ilves has spoken and written extensively on integration, trans-atlantic relations, e-government, cyber security and other related topics. He has published many essays and articles in Estonian and English on numerous topics ranging from Estonian language, history and literature to global foreign and security policy and cyber security.<\/p>\n
Having realized just how important the early adoption and acquisition of digital skills were before many others did, President Ilves was named the\u00a0World Leader in Cybersecurity<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0with his contributions by the Boston Global Forum and the Michael Dukakis Institute on December 12, 2017 at Loeb House, Harvard University.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Toomas Hendrik Ilves served as the fourth President of Estonia from 2006 to 2016, previously served in the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2002. He was key in driving the initiatives in e-government and cyber security for which the country has been acknowledged as a world-leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section fb_built=\"1\" admin_label=\"section\" _builder_version=\"4.16\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_row admin_label=\"row\" _builder_version=\"4.16\" background_size=\"initial\" background_position=\"top_left\" background_repeat=\"repeat\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"4_4\" _builder_version=\"4.16\" custom_padding=\"|||\" global_colors_info=\"{}\" custom_padding__hover=\"|||\"][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Text\" _builder_version=\"4.17.4\" background_size=\"initial\" background_position=\"top_left\" background_repeat=\"repeat\" hover_enabled=\"0\" global_colors_info=\"{}\" sticky_enabled=\"0\"]<\/p> Shinzo Abe was Prime Minister of Japan from 2006-2007 and again from 2012-2020. During his time as Prime Minister, Abe reinforced nation-wide Cybersecurity in Japan and launched the Basic Action Cybersecurity program and Cybersecurity Strategy.<\/p> In PM Abe\u2019s view, cybersecurity is a critical issue to the national security and Japan\u2019s crisis management, as well as an important element fostering the Japan\u2019s Growth Strategy. He said his government will \u201ctake all possible means to ensure cybersecurity\u201d, given its mission of successfully hosting\u00a0Ise-Shima Summit in 2016, Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.<\/p> In his speech, PM Abe also stressed that \u201cWe are\u00a0now engaged as a national in all our efforts to reinforce cybersecurity. Theses include the Government\u2019s enactment of the Basic Action Cybersecurity in Nov 2014 and a Cabinet Decision taken in Sep this year on our new Cybersecurity Strategy\u201d, and expressed his commitment to cooperate with international communities in the fight against cyber crime: \u201cJapan will continue to cooperate closely with the US and other partners in the International community, reliably safeguard our nation\u2019s important information and property while playing a leading role in achieving the peace and stability of the international community.\u201d<\/p> Watch the full speech of PM Abe<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_video _builder_version=\"4.17.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ApQDFpM9yYU\" hover_enabled=\"0\" sticky_enabled=\"0\"][\/et_pb_video][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-leaders-for-peace-and-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonglobalforum.org\/gemaiws\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}