Alex Stubb ’93 H’17 Elected President of Finland

Alex Stubb ’93 H’17 was elected president of Finland this past February. Stubb, a member of the mainstream center-right National Coalition Party, received 51.6 percent of the votes, outlasting his opponent, Pekka Haavisto, in a runoff.

As president, Stubb’s main duties in his six-year term will be overseeing foreign and security policy, representing the country in NATO and serving as commander in chief of his country’s military. Finland has “a semi-presidential system, a cross between a president with real powers and a party-driven parliament,” said Brent Nelsen, the Jane Fishburne Hipp Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Furman.

Stubb is the first Furman graduate to serve as a head of state. As Commencement speaker in 2017, he explained that he came to Furman because his brother had studied here. At first, Alex wanted to study business, but he quickly became interested in political science.

“Alex Stubb is a remarkable leader,” said Furman President Elizabeth Davis. “He is an engaging and profoundly curious person with a strong moral compass that always points to doing what’s best for his fellow citizens.”

The country recently joined NATO, a move Stubb long supported. Finland, with just more than 5 million people, shares an 832-plus-mile border with Russia. Finland closed the border to control a flood of migrants from Russia.

Stubb served as Finland’s prime minister from 2014 to 2015, a role that focused mainly on domestic policy. Stubb has also served as minister of foreign affairs and minister of finance, and he was a member of the European Parliament, among other roles. He was vice president of the European Investment Bank from 2017 to 2020.

Stubb has always been supportive of Furman, said Nelsen, who was Stubb’s professor in several classes in the 1990s and co-authored a textbook with him. Overseas, Stubb met with students on several occasions when Nelsen took groups of students to Brussels and Italy.

At the 2017 Commencement, during which Furman bestowed an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree on Stubb, he thanked professors Nelsen, Bill Lavery, Ty Tessitore, Don Gordon and Jim Guth. “These were the guys who instilled the notion of curiosity, academia and a love of learning to me,” he said. “I would not stand here [were] it not for Furman and the professors.”