Sauli Väinämö Niinistö
Speaker of the Parliament of Finland; Member, National Coalition Party; former Minister of Finance and Justice, Helsinki.

Sauli Niinistö is currently Speaker of the Finnish Parliament. He began his career as senior secretary at the Turku Court of Appeal from 1976-87 and ran his own law firm in Salo from 1978-88. In 1994, he became a Court of Appeal Judge and in 1987 was elected Member of the Finnish Parliament for the National Coalition Party. In 1995, he became Justice Minister in Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen’s first cabinet. Switching portfolios, he became Finance Minister in 1996, a post he also held in Lipponen’s second cabinet from 1999–2003. After his term as a cabinet minister, Mr. Niinistö went on to become vice president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) until 2007.