Kolinda Grabar Kitarović is the 4th and 1st female President of Croatia (2015-2020) with broad national and international experience in politics, diplomacy and security studies. During her career as an elected official and in national and international civil service, among other, she served as Croatia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (2003-2008) and Assistant Secretary General of NATO (2011-2014). She waselected an independent member of the International Olympic Committeein 2020, and has been appointed Chair of the Future Hosts Commission for the Games of the Olympiad. She advises governments and private sector on geopolitics, security and defense, and serves on the boards of a number of non-profit institutions, such as the US Atlantic Council, GLOBSEC, Halifax International Security Forum,Concordia Leadership Council, Friends of Europe. She is a co-chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) co-founded by WHO and the World Bank, a Member of the High-Level Advisory Council for UNAOC, and chair emerita of the Council of Women World Leaders.
Parallel to her diplomatic and political careers, she has pursued an academic career in government, international relations and security studies at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy (1994-1995), the George Washington University (2002-2003), Harvard University (2009), the Johns Hopkins University (2011), and the University of Zagreb. She is a recipient of the 2019 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement award for her "remarkable contributions as a leader, diplomat, and public servant", the George Washington University President’s medal, and many other national and international awards, decorations, recognitions, honorary doctorates and honorary citizenships.
Together with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda, she co-founded the Three Seas Initiative in 2015.