Olli Rehn

Ren was born in Mikkeli, Finland. He studied economics, international relations, and journalism in Minnesota, United States. Later, he completed his Master's in Political Science at the University of Helsinki, and in 1996, he earned his Doctorate in Philosophy with a focus on International Political Economy at the University of Oxford. Olli Rehn began his political career as the leader of the youth wing of the Centre Party from 1987 to 1989. In 1988, he was elected Vice President of the Centre Party, a position he held until 1994. During those years, he also served as a city councilor in Helsinki. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1991 for the Helsinki constituency. Simultaneously, he led the Finnish delegation to the Council of Europe and was a special advisor to Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho from 1992 to 1993. In 1995, he became a Member of the European Parliament and served as Deputy Chairman of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. He ceased to be an MEP after the 1996 European elections. From 1998 to 2002, he was the head of Erkki Liikanen's office (then a member of the European Commission). In 2002, he was a candidate for the presidency of the Centre Party, but Anneli Jäätteenmäki ultimately took the position. In the fall of 2002, Alpo Rusi, a Finnish diplomat and long-time close friend of Rehn, was suspected of espionage. As a result, Rehn decided not to run in the Finnish parliamentary elections of 2003 and focused on supporting his friend. In the fall of 2003, after Rusi was cleared of the charges, they co-authored a book titled "Kylma tasavalta," which harshly criticized the police responsible for such cases. From 2002 to 2003, he taught at the University of Helsinki in the Department of Political Science until he was selected as a special advisor to Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen on economic policy issues. He remained in this position until his appointment to the European Commission the following year (2004) as the Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society under the presidency of Romano Prodi. From November 2004 to February 2010, he served as the Commissioner responsible for Enlargement under the presidency of José Manuel Barroso. In November 2009, José Manuel Barroso proposed Rehn as the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs for the period 2010-2014.