Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko
Global Citizen Award
Petro Poroshenko was elected president of Ukraine on May 25, 2014 and was sworn in as president on June 7, 2014.
Poroshenko was born on September 26, 1965. From 1982 to 1989, he studied at Taras Shevchenko National University at the Faculty of International Relations and International Law. He graduated with a degree in international economic relations, then served in the army from 1984 to 1986.
From 1989 to 1992, Poroshenko worked as a postgraduate student assistant at the Department of International Economic Relations in Taras Shevchenko National University, Kyiv. From 1993 to 1998, he was CEO of Ukrprominvest corporate group.
In 1998, Poroshenko was elected as a member of Parliament of Ukraine. In 2000, he became a deputy head of the National Bank Council of Ukraine, and then, when elected to the Parliament, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget Issues.
In 2002, he earned a PhD in juridical sciences with his thesis on “Legal Regulation of Managing State Corporate Rights in Ukraine.”
In 2005, Poroshenko served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. He was again elected as a member of Parliament of Ukraine and, from 2006 to 2007, chaired the Committee on Finance and Banking Activity of the Parliament of Ukraine.
In 2009, he was appointed minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine and in 2012, minister of economic development and trade. In October 2012, he was again elected as a member of Parliament and the co-chair of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.
Poroshenko is an honored Ukrainian economist, having received the Ukraine State Prize in science and technology and the P. Orlyk international prize, and was decorated with the Grand Cross Order of Civil Merit of the Kingdom of Spain.
He is married to Maryna Poroshenko. The couple has four children: Oleksiy, Mykhailo, Yevheniya, and Oleksandra.