Lithuania: Dalia Grybauskaite

Stability is one of Grybauskaite's favorite issues. Observers have noted that the finance minister tends to be reserved and is one who likes to bandy about numbers when she talks. And when she starts uttering numbers, she often formulates long and precise sentences in impeccable English and perfect Russian.

Born in 1956, Grybauskaite studied economics in the Russian cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow. She began her career at a Vilnius economics institute in 1990 and entered politics the following year. As the director of economic relations in the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Grybauskaite was also responsible for the creation of a free-trade deal between Lithuania and the EU. In 1994 she moved to Brussels to head the country's representation there. Six years later she was promoted to the position of deputy foreign secretary, and in 2001 she became Lithunia's finance minister.

One of Grybauskaite's chief career achievements was her role as the co-author of an energetic savings plan that helped the government of former Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius successfully take hold of the economy before the Russian crisis hit too badly. During the course of her austerity plan, she also succeeded in fulfilling many of the promises made by current Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas to farmers and pensioners back in his days as an opposition politician.