Sanjaasuren Oyun

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Oyun (on the right) with Tony Blair

Sanjaasuren Oyun (born Jan. 18, 1968) is a Mongolian politician, stateswoman, and noted public figure. Currently, she is Mongolia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, a post she has held since December 2007. She has been elected to Mongolia's Parliament (State Great Khural) twice, first in 2000 and again in 2004. She is also the founder and chairwoman of the Civil Will Party, Mongolia's third largest political party.

[edit] Background

Sanjaasuren Oyun was born and raised in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She attended Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic and received her B.A. and M.Sc. in Geochemistry in 1987. From 1987 to 1990, she worked as a field geologist in Mongolia at a Joing Mongolian and Czech Geological Expedition. From 1990 to 1991, she was the UNDP Project Manager for the establishment of a Mineral Processing Technological Center. In 1992, she traveled to the UK to study at the University of Cambridge, and graduated in 1996 with a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences, the first Mongolian to do so. From 1992 to 1996, she worked at the Rio Tinto Mining Company as a Project Geologist.

In 1998, her brother, S. Zorig, was brutally murdered in his Ulaanbaatar apartment. He had been a major force behind Mongolia's transition from communism to democraty in the early 1990s. Oyun entered politics to continue her brother's work at promoting democracy. As such, in parliament, she was the chair of the Parliament subcommittee on the UN Millennium Development Goals and Poverty Reduction, member on the Standing Committee on Security and Foreign Policy, member of the Special Oversight Committee, and co-chair of the Parliament Anti-Corruption Group, a post she has had since 2004.

Her other positions have since included founder and head of the Zorig Foundation, a major Mongolian NGO devoted to the advancement of democracy, corruption and poverty reduction, and good governance, Vice Chair of the Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia (a network of Asian democracies), president of the Mongolian Geological Association, and Board Member of Transparency International Mongolia.

[edit] Personal Information

She is married with two children. She is also the first Mongolian woman to have earned a black belt in karate. She is also a dedicated mountain climber and chess player.

She is fluent in Mongolian, English, Russian, and Czech.