Girma Wolde-Giorgis

Girma Wolde-Giorgis ግርማ ወልደ ጊዮርጊስ
President of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
In office 8 October 2001 – 7 October 2013
Prime Minister	Meles Zenawi Hailemariam Desalegn
Preceded by	Negasso Gidada
Succeeded by	Mulatu Teshome
Personal details
Born	December 1924 (age 92) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Political party	Independent
Religion	Ethiopian Orthodoxy

Girma Wolde-Giorgis (Ge'ez: ግርማ ወልደ ጊዮርጊስ; born December 1924) is an Ethiopian politician who was the President of Ethiopia from 2001 to 2013. He was the second person to hold the office of President since the founding of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia in 1995.

He was elected President on 8 October 2001, as a relative unknown and a surprise choice, by a unanimous vote of the Ethiopian Parliament. The Ethiopian presidency is largely a symbolic office with little power. Most of the power is vested in the hands of the Prime Minister. Presidents serve six-year terms. Girma was re-elected as President on 9 October 2007.

Girma was born in December 1924 in Addis Ababa. He first attended an Ethiopian Orthodox Church school and later joined the Teferi Mekonnen School in Addis Ababa where he followed his education until the Italian invasion. The school was then renamed "Scuola Principe di Piemonte" (Prince of Piedmonte School) for the Crown Prince of Italy, in Addis Ababa.

Between 1950 and 1952, he received certificates in Management (from the Netherlands), in Air Traffic Management (in Sweden) and Air Traffic Control (in Canada) under a training programme sponsored by the International Civil Aviation Organization. He was one of the first Ethiopians in the Ethiopian airforce dominated by American technicians. Girma tried to motivate Ethiopians to join the airlines and wrote a book on fundamentals. He was an activist and in the Inter Parliamentary Summit in Yugoslavia, he condemned the apartheid system in South Africa. Girma speaks Afan Oromo (Oromiffa), Amharic, and English fluently.

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