Kersti Kaljulaid
The AI-Cybersecurity Essay Prize Competition Review Board Co-Chair
Kersti Kaljulaid served as the President of the Republic of Estonia from 2016 to 2021. Before her presidency, she was a Member of the European Court of Auditors, advised Prime Minister Mart Laar, and held various high-level positions in the energy, investment banking, and telecom sectors. With degrees in genetic engineering and economy, she has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the Estonian Genome Center and served as the Council Chair of the University of Tartu from 2012 to 2016.
In the summer of 2021, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed President Kaljulaid as the Global Advocate for the ‘Every Woman Every Child’ strategy for the subsequent two years. In 2023, she co-chaired the United Nations High-level Panel on the Teaching Profession. She holds the distinction of being the first Estonian featured on Forbes’ list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
In 2021, she founded the President Kaljulaid Foundation, an NGO and think-tank for Advancing Democracy, Empowering the Vulnerable, and Navigating the Societal Impact of Digitalization.