Raimonds Vejonis
Raimonds V?jonis born 15 June 1966, is the current President of Latvia, in office since 2015. He is a member of the Green Party, part of the Union of Greens and Farmers. He served as Minister of Environmental Protection and Regional Development in 2002 and in 2011 and as Minister of the Environment from 2003 to 2011, while the Ministry of Regional Development was a separate department. He became Minister of Defence of Latvia in 2014 and held that office until becoming President in 2015. V?jonis was born on 15 June 1966 in Pskov Oblast to a Latvian father and a Russian mother, while his father was serving in the Soviet army there. He grew up in Sarka?i and attended school in the nearby town of Madona. V?jonis became interested in environmental protection because his grandfather had been blinded by chemicals used on a Soviet collective farm. He graduated from Faculty of Biology of the University of Latvia in 1989 and obtained a master\'s degree from it in 1995. During his studies he worked as a biology teacher in Madona. From 1989 to 1996 he was deputy director of Madona Regional Environmental board. He was a member of Madona city council from 1990 to 1993. From 1996 to 2002 he was director of Greater Riga Regional Environmental board, during this period he also was a board member in Skulte port and served as state representative at Getli?i Eko waste management company.
