Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, born 29 April 1968, is a Croatian politician and diplomat serving as the 4th and current President of Croatia since 2015. She is the first woman elected to the office after the first multi-party elections in 1990 and became the youngest person to assume the presidency at age 46. Before her presidency, she was Minister of European Affairs (2003–2005), the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (2005–2008), Croatian Ambassador to the United States (2008–2011), and Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy at NATO (2011–2014).
Grabar-Kitarović ran as the only female candidate in the 2014–2015 presidential election, finishing second in the first round and narrowly defeating incumbent Ivo Josipović in the second round by 1.48%. She received 1.114 million votes, the smallest number for any elected Croatian president. Croatia had previously had a female Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor (2009–2011). Grabar-Kitarović was a member of the Croatian Democratic Union party from 1993 until 2015 and a Croatian member of the Trilateral Commission but resigned both positions upon taking office. In 2017, Forbes ranked her as the 39th most powerful woman in the world.
Croatia
