Jacob Söderman Born on March 19th, 1938 in Helsinki Married, three children
STUDIES Master of Laws (University of Helsinki) 1962 Court Training 1965 Licenciate of Laws (University of Helsinki) 1967
EMPLOYMENT Senior Lecturer in Social Law at the Swedish Institute of Social Work and Local Administration 1966-67 Director, Association of Swedish Speaking Municipalities in Finland 1967-71 Head of Labour Safety Department, Ministry for Social Affairs and Health 1971-82 Governor of the Province of Uusimaa (1.2 million inhabitants) 1982-89 Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland 1989-95 European Ombudsman 1995-2003
POSITIONS OF TRUST Minister of Justice 1971 Finnish Representative in the Governing Body of the ILO 1972-75 Member of Parliament 1972-82 Member of the Board of Directors of the International Ombudsman Institute 1991-92 President of the Council for Mass Media in Finland, 2003-2005 Member of the Board of the University of Helsinki 2004- 2006 Member of the Group of Wise Persons, Council of Europe 2005-2006 Member of Parliament 2007- Vice Chairman of the Constitutional Law Committee General Rapporteur, Conference on Transparency for Better Governance , International Institute of Administrative Sciences 2007
HONOURS Grand Cross of Bernardo O'Higgins Decoration confered by Chile 1993 Grand Cross of the Lions Decoration of Finland 1995 European Information Association Award for Achievement in European Information 1996 Honorary Doctorate of Political Sciences, Åbo Akademi University 1998 Honorary Doctorate in Law, University of Lapland 1999 Special Award for the European Ombudsman's Contribution to Dissemination of Information by the Ministry of Education of Finland 2000 Alexis de Tocqueville Prize, European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) 2001 Knight of the French Legion of Honour 2002 Snellman Prize, Finnish Periodical Publishers Association 2002 Expatriot of the Year Award 2003 Consumer of the Year Award, The Finnish Consumers' Association 2005 Codexmedaljen 2006 Chydenius Prize 2006 Finnish Humanist Union Prize 2007 Nordic Administrative Union/Finnish Association Prize 2007 Peace Prize, Committee of 100 in Finland 2008 Honorary Chairman, The Swedish Social Democrats in Finland 2009 Honorary Member, Eurooppalaisen Oikeusturvan Keskusliitto Association 2009 Golden Medal of Honour, The Swedish Assembly of Finland 2009
KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES Swedish, Finnish, English, Spanish and French
