Elina Maria Valtonen (formerly Lepomäki; born 23 October 1981)^[1] is a Finnish politician who has served as Minister for Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Petteri Orpo since 2023. A member of the National Coalition Party (NCP), she has represented the constituency of Uusimaa in the Parliament of Finland since 2014.^[2] In the 2021 municipal election she collected the second-highest number of votes in Helsinki and was elected a member of its city council.^[3]

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Quick Facts Elina Valtonen, Minister for Foreign Affairs ...

Elina Valtonen
Valtonen in 2024
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 June 2023
Prime Minister	Petteri Orpo
Preceded by	Pekka Haavisto
Member of the Finnish Parliament for Helsinki
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 July 2014
Personal details
Born	Elina Maria Valtonen (1981-10-23) 23 October 1981 (age 42) Helsinki, Finland
Political party	National Coalition Party
Residence	Espoo
Alma mater	Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki School of Economics
Website	elinavaltonen.fi

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As a child, Valtonen lived with her family in Bonn, West Germany; she completed A-levels (Reifeprüfung diploma) at the German School in Helsinki.

Valtonen holds a master's degree in both technology and financial economics from Helsinki University of Technology and Helsinki School of Economics.^[2] She is an owner in several technology start-ups;^[4] she chaired the board of the free-market think tank Libera from 2015 to 2021.^[5]

Prior to entering politics in 2014, Valtonen spent 10 years in investment banking, as a director at Royal Bank of Scotland and as a senior analyst at Nordea.^[6] She has developed a model for transforming the welfare state into a digital sharing economy, called the Life Account.^[7] In 2018, she participated in a Bilderberg Conference in Turin.

In April 2016, Valtonen announced her candidacy for the leadership of the National Coalition Party. In the first round of the leadership election on 11 June 2016 she received 15% of the vote and thus failed to be elected.^[8] In September 2020, Valtonen was elected as a new vice chair of the Coalition Party.^[9]

In the parliamentary elections of 2023, Valtonen raised the largest election campaign budget, 179,000 euros.^[10] Her biggest funders were Chaim Poju Zabludowicz and Björn Wahlroos.^[11][12] In June 2023, she was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Orpo Cabinet.^[13]

Valtonen has co-authored several reports on economics and the society such as "The Future of the Euro – The alternatives for Finland" (2014) and "The Life Account – A Social Security Reform" (2013).^[7] In 2018, she published her book Vapauden voitto (Victory of Freedom, Otava), on how to reform the Nordic welfare model and the European Union.

• European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member of the Council (since 2023)^[14]

In September 2020, Valtonen filed for divorce from Jukka Lepomäki; in April 2021 she announced that she changed her surname back to her maiden name.^[15] Valtonen and Lepomäki have two children together.