Furman alum Stubb wins first round of Finnish presidential elections

Several news sources reported on Sunday’s first round of presidential elections in Finland. Furman University alumnus and former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb narrowly defeated former Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. The two will go head-to-head in a runoff on Feb. 11. The news was covered in Bloomberg, POLITICO, The Standard and The Straits Times.

Stubb ’93 H’17 came to Furman to study political science and play collegiate sports. He served as prime minister from 2014-2015. He has held posts in the Finnish government including finance minister, foreign minister, trade and Europe minister and was a member of the Finnish Parliament. Stubb was a member of the European Parliament from 2004-2008 and served in the national government from 2008-2016. Stubb was also a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has a master’s degree from the College of Europe in Bruges. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. He received an honorary degree from Furman in 2017 when he delivered Furman’s commencement address.