Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation

Biographical Notes

Date of Birth: October 12, 1960

Education: Leningrad State University (Economics)

Postgraduate student, Institute of Economy, Russian Academy of Sciences (Ph.D. Economics)

Experience:

1985-1990 – Research Fellow, Institute for Economic and Social Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences

1990-1991 – Deputy Chairman of Economic Reform Committee of Leningrad

1991-1992 - Deputy Chairman of Economic Development Committee of Leningrad

1992-1993 – Chairman of the Financial Committee of Saint-Petersburg

1993-1996 – Deputy, First Deputy of Mayor of Saint-Petersburg, Chairman of the Financial Committee of Saint-Petersburg

1996-1997 – Deputy Head of the Russian Federation President Administration

1997-2000 – First Deputy Minister of Finance

2000- 2004 – Deputy Prime-Minister, Minister of Finance

2004 - present time – Minister of Finance

Marital status: Married, two children

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom

Gordon Brown was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer on 2 May 1997. He has been MP for Dunfermline East since 1983 and was Shadow Chancellor from 1992.

Mr Brown was born in 1951 and educated at Kirkcaldy High School and Edinburgh University where he gained 1st Class Honours and then a Doctorate. From 1976 to 1980, Mr Brown lectured at Edinburgh University and then Caledonian University before taking up a post at Scottish TV in 1980.

Outside of work, Mr Brown's interests include football, tennis and film.

John W. Snow, Secretary of the Treasury, United States of America

John William Snow was nominated to be the 73rd Secretary of the Treasury on January 13, 2003. The United States Senate confirmed Snow to the position on January 30, 2003 and he was sworn into office on February 3, 2003.

Before being appointed to the Treasury, Mr Snow was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CSX Corporation. Mr Snow’s previous public service includes having served at the Department of Transportation as Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Deputy Undersecretary; Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs; and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Plans and International Affairs. Mr Snow has also served as Chairman of the Business Roundtable.

Mr Snow was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1939, and graduated in 1962 from the University of Toledo. He later earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia and went on to teach economics.

Thierry Breton, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, France

Thierry Breton was born in 1955 and was President of France Telecom from 2002 until 2005. Prior to this Mr Breton was President of Thomson multimedia and member of the executive management board of the Bull Group. Since the 1980s Mr Breton has also held senior posts at Forma Systems, Schneider Electric, Dexia and Axa. Mr Breton studied in Paris at the l'Ecole superieure d'electricite and the l'Institut des Hautes etudes de Defense nationale. Mr Breton has also been decorated by the National Order of the Legion of Honour and is Officer in the National Order of Merit.

The Honourable James Michael Flaherty, Minister of Finance

Whitby–Oshawa (Ontario)

Jim Flaherty is a first-time Member of Parliament and was elected to the House of Commons in 2006.

Mr. Flaherty served as a Member of Ontario’s provincial legislature for the constituency of Whitby–Ajax from 1995 to 2005. During this period, he held a number of posts. Under Premier Eves, he served as the Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation. Under Premier Harris, Mr. Flaherty was the Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance, Attorney General, Minister responsible for Native Affairs, Minister of Labour and Solicitor General, and Minister of Correctional Services. Most recently, as a member of the provincial opposition, he was Critic for Public Infrastructure Renewal.

Mr. Flaherty graduated from Princeton University and has a law degree from Osgoode Law School. He was called to the Bar in 1975 and practised law for more than 20 years before entering politics. He is the past president of the Head Injury Association of the Durham region.

Mr. Flaherty is married to Christine and they have triplet sons.

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Minister of the Treasury and Budget, Italy

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa (Belluno 1940)graduated from the Luigi Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, in 1966 and received a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Military service as Artillery officer. He holds six honorary degrees.

Is Chairman of the Trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation, Senior Fellow of the Institute of International Affairs (Rome) and President of Notre Europe (Paris). He was a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank from 1998 until May 2005.

He served as a member of the Executive board of the European Central Bank (1998-2005), Chairman of Consob - Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa (1997-98), Deputy Director-General of Banca d’Italia (1984-97) and Director?General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the Commission of the European Communities (1979-83).

After the end of his mandate at the European Central Bank, and until his appointment as Economy and Finance Minister, he has been President of Notre Europe (Paris), Senior Fellow of the Istituto Affari Internaionali (IAI, Rome), Chairman of the Trustees of the IASC Foundation, the oversight body to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and Senior Adviser and Member of the Advisory Board of the Promontory Financial Group, LLC.

During his activity he has he has served in a leadership capacity on various European and international committees, including as Joint Secretary to the Delors Committee for the study of European Economic and Monetary Union (1988-89); Chairman of the Banking Advisory Committee of the Commission of the European Communities (1988-91); of the Working Group on Payment Systems of the Central Banks of the European Community (European Monetary Institute) (1991-95); of the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision (1993-97); of the European Regional Committee of IOSCO (1997-98); of the FESCO (Forum of the European Securities Commissions) (1997-98); of the G10 Committee on Payments and Settlement Systems (2000-05).

Mr Padoa-Schioppa is a member of the Group of Thirty since 1979 and of the Advisory Board of the Institute for International Economics (IIE, Washington DC), He has been President of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies (Geneva, 2001-06).

He is author of numerous books and articles. Among the most recent: ‘Europa, una pazienza attiva’ (2006); ‘L’Euro e la sua banca centrale’ (2004); ‘Regulating Finance’ (2004); ‘Dodici Settembre’ (2002); ‘Europa, forza gentile’ (2001).

He is Cavaliere di Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, Minister of Finance, Japan

Sadakazu Tanigaki was born in Kyoto in 1945 and graduated in Law from the University of Tokyo in 1972. Mr Tanigaki was appointed Minister of Finance in September 2003. He has held several ministerial posts since he was elected into public office in 1983 including Minister of State for Food Safety, Minister of State for Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan, and Minister of State for Science and Technology.

Peer Steinbruck, Federal Minister of Finance, Germany

Steinbruck was appointed Federal Minister of Finance on 22 November 2005. He is also deputy Party Chairman and member of the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Prior to this, Mr Steinbruck was Minister President of North Rhine/Westphalia from November 2002 to June 2005, and Finance Minister in the same region from February 2000 to November 2002. During the 1990's he served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Land Development of Schleswig-Holstein, and later as State Secretary and then as Minister at the Ministry of Economics, Technology and Transportation in Schleswig-Holstein.

Mr Steinbruck was born in Hamburg in 1947, studied economics and social sciences and graduated with a degree in economics from the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel.