Speaker - Ms Elina Valtonen

Ms Elina Valtonen

Minister for Foreign Affairs
Finland

Biography

In Parliament, she has served as vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee as well as in the Finance Committee and Grand Committee. Valtonen has chaired the Finnish delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. 

Prior to entering politics, Valtonen worked for ten years in director level roles in the financial sector, including in Copenhagen and London. As a former software developer and investor, she has also been involved in setting up several tech startups. 

Valtonen is a Master of Science in Technology, majoring in computer science, and a Master of Science in Economics, majoring in financial economics (Helsinki Aalto University). She has also completed doctoral studies in applied mathematics and systems analysis. 

Valtonen’s first book Vapauden voitto (‘The Victory of Freedom’, Otava 2018) was the most sold non-fiction book in Finland for several weeks. In addition to Finnish, she speaks Swedish, English, German and French. Valtonen is the mother of two children.