Aigars Kalvītis (born 27 June 1966) is a Latvian businessman and a former politician who was the Prime Minister of Latvia from 2004 to 2007. Currently he is the president of Latvian Ice Hockey Federation and the Chairman of the Board of Latvian gas company Latvijas Gāze. He is the Chairman of the Council of Latvian telecommunications company Tet.
Education
In 1984 Kalvītis graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 41. In 1992, he graduated from the Latvian University of Agriculture with a bachelor's degree in economics and in 1995 he graduated with a magister degree in economics. In the same year he studied in the University of Wisconsin.
Political career
Political activities up to 2004
Kalvītis was one of the founders of People's Party of Latvia in 1997 and was first elected to Saeima, the Latvian parliament, in 1998. He served as the minister of agriculture from 1999 to 2000 and the minister of economics from 2000 to 2002.
His governing coalition retained power in the 7 October 2006 parliamentary election, winning a slight majority of seats and becoming the first government since Latvian independence in 1991 to be re-elected. It consisted of the People's Party, Union of Greens and Farmers, the Latvia First/Latvian Way Party, and For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK. For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK was added after the 2006 elections, and strengthened the coalition's majority to 59 of the 100 seats. Meanwhile, the People's Party became the largest party in Parliament. Kalvītis became its chairman.
Retirement from politics
On 7 November 2007, Kalvītis announced that he would step down as prime minister on 5 December, after encountering widespread opposition to his dismissal of the head of the anti-corruption bureau, Aleksejs Loskutovs, in the previous month. He accordingly met with President Valdis Zatlers on 5 December and announced his resignation,
Business career
From 1992 to 1998, he was a manager and Chairman of the Board of various agriculture related businesses. And after his political career he has been Chairman of the Council of various well-known companies like Tet (2009), Latvijas Balzams (2009–2015), and Chairman of the Board of enterprises like Hockey Club Dinamo Riga (2010–2015), the operator of Latvian LNG infrastructure Conexus Baltic Grid (2017) and Latvijas Gāze (2015). He became the president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation in October 2016, to succeed Kirovs Lipmans.
Personal life
His wife is Kristīne Kalvīte. He has three sons Kārlis, Roberts and Rūdolfs.
See also
- First Kalvītis cabinet
- Second Kalvītis cabinet