Taneti Maamau
President of Kiribati · 1960
Who is Taneti Maamau?
Taneti Maamau was born on 16 September 1960 on the island of Onotoa in southern Kiribati. He began his career in 1979 as a planning officer with Kiribati's Ministry of Finance, later rising to Assistant Secretary within the finance ministry's administration cadre over more than two decades of civil service. In 2002 he resigned from public service to enter elected politics, winning a parliamentary seat for Onotoa in the Maneaba ni Maungatabu in 2007 and being re-elected in 2011 and 2015. In February 2016 the Tobwaan Kiribati Party endorsed him as its presidential candidate, and he won the March 2016 election in a landslide with roughly sixty percent of the vote, being sworn in as the fifth President of Kiribati on 11 March 2016. He was re-elected in 2020 and again in 2024. As president, Maamau has championed the Kiribati Vision for 20 Years (KV20), a long-term development plan aimed at strengthening the fishing and tourism industries and reducing reliance on foreign aid, while also representing Kiribati at international climate forums, where he has argued for continued national development and adaptation over narratives of Kiribati's inevitable disappearance beneath rising seas.
Sources: Taneti Maamau, Wikipedia (biography, elections, KV20 policy) · CBS News, "As climate change threatens islands, Kiribati's president plans development" · Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, "H.E Taneti Maamau" biographical profile