Visiting Fellow Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar

Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar is director of the Digital Society Institute at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. From 2018 to 2021, she served as ambassador for cyber diplomacy and director general for the Cyber Diplomacy Department at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she led Estonian efforts to promote norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace at the United Nations Security Council. From 2012 to 2018, she worked as head of cyber policy Coordination at the European External Action Service, where she coordinated E.U. external relations on cyber issues and co-led preparation of European cybersecurity strategies. In 2011, she was assigned to the NATO International Staff to prepare the NATO Cyber Defense Policy.  Tiirmaa-Klaar has been working on cybersecurity since 2007, when she led the development of the Estonian Cyber Security Strategy. From 2008 to 2010, she coordinated the implementation of Estonian cyber strategy and managed the National Cyber Security Council. In her earlier career, she held various managerial positions at the Estonian Ministry of Defense and Tallinn University. She was a Fulbright Scholar at George Washington University and has published in several academic journals throughout her career.  She received her BA in sociology from Tartu University and her MA in political science from the Central European University.