Martti Ahtisaari a brief biography

After a distinguished career in the United Nations and the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Martti Ahtisaari was elected President of the Republic of Finland in 1994. He held office until early 2000.

In 2000, Martti Ahtisaari founded Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a non-governmental organisation, to continue his legacy in conflict resolution. On 1 May 2021, CMI transferred all its operations to the new legal structure CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, which continues the work of CMI association. For his life’s work Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.

Upon leaving office in 2000, Ahtisaari has served in a variety of key international roles, including facilitating the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, chairing an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq, and appointments as UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and as Personal Envoy of the OSCE CiO for Central Asia. Between 2005 and 2008, Ahtisaari was Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo.

President Ahtisaari has been active in numerous non-governmental capacities. He has Chaired or Co-Chaired International Crisis Group, East-West Institute, Interpeace, European Council on Foreign Relations, Independent Commission on Turkey and CMI.

Ahtisaari passed away in Helsinki on 16.10.2023. He was 86 years old.

Martti Ahtisaari was married to Eeva Ahtisaari. They have a son.

A biography of Martti Ahtisaari by Katri Merikallio and Tapani Ruokanen has been published
in Finnish in 2011 under the title Matkalla, and in English in 2015 as The Mediator by Hurst Publishers.