Rihards Kols
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Parliament of Latvia
Speaker
Rihards Kols is a Member of the Parliament of the Saeima (the Parliament) of the Republic of Latvia since his re-election in 2018. R.Kols serves as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima and as the Representative of the Saeima to the OECD.
He is also the Deputy Chairman of the political party ‘’National Alliance’’, guardsman at the National Guard of Republic of Latvia, member of the European Leadership Network and is a Millennium Fellow at Atlantic Council.
Prior to current duties, Mr Kols was the the Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima, a Member of the European Affairs Committee of the Saeima and a Member of the Parliament. R.Kols also served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, an international affairs analyst at the Latvian British Chamber of Commerce and an intern at the Royal Institute of International Affairs “Chatham House” at the Russia and Eurasia Programme.
Rihards Kols has extensive experience working as a legal consultant for several legal offices and he is an active participant in the non-governmental sector. He is the founder and Member of the Board of the NGO “Latvian Flag” and Member of the Board at the “Youth Centre for Competence” and Member of the Board of the “European Movement in Latvia”. Mr Kols holds a Master’s degree in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Westminster – The Diplomatic Academy of London, as well as a professional Bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies from the School of Business Administration “Turība”.