Vaira Vike-Freiberga is President of the Club de Madrid and former President of Latvia. She was instrumental in achieving membership in the EU and NATO for her country and was Special Envoy on UN reform. She was vice-chair of the Reflection group on the long term future of Europe and chaired the High-level group on freedom and pluralism of media in the EU. Born in Riga, she started her schooling in refugee camps in Germany, then lived in Morocco and Canada, obtaining a Ph.D. at McGill University . After a career as Professor of psychology at the University of Montreal, she returned to her native country in to head the Latvian Institute. She has published extensively and is much in demand as a speaker.