On October 7, 2013, the joint session of the House of Federations and the House of Representatives elected Ambassador Mulatu Teshome (PhD) as President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

President Mulatu Teshome was sworn in as the third President replacing President Girma Woldegiorgis.

President Mulatu was born in 1957 in Wollega, Oromia Regional State, in the western part of the country.

Mulatu obtained a B.A degree from Beijing University in Political Economy and Philosophy (1982), and attained an LL.M in International Law and a Ph.D. from the same university (1988).

Mulatu went on further studies, in USA, in International Relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (1988-1990) and acquired a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) degree (May 1990).

In his career as a public official, Mulatu joined the Foreign Ministry as a counselor in 1991, and was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan (1992-1994), as well as being non-resident Ambassador to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines.

Mulatu served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China (1994-1995), then appointed Vice Minister at the Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (1995-2001). During this time he was in charge of international economic cooperation for bilateral and multilateral affairs, and delegations in numerous bilateral and multilateral negotiations and annual consultation meetings with Ethiopia’s development partners.

Mulatu subsequently served as as Minister of Agriculture (2001-2002) and Chairman of the National Rural Travel and Transport Program.

Elected as Speaker of the House of Federation in October 2002, he served there until 2005 when he rejoined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Ambassador to Turkey, the post he held until his election as President.

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