Dana Reizniece-Ozola


Dana Reizniece-Ozola is a Latvian chess player and politician. She served as minister of Economics and minister of Finance of the Republic of Latvia. She has been elected as a member of the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Saeima of the Republic of Latvia and worked as the chairperson of the Commission on Education, Culture and Science, Member of the Legal Affairs Commission and Member of the European Affairs Commission. In chess, Reizniece-Ozola was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001.

Biography

From 2006 to 2014, Reizniece-Ozola was Advisor to the Board, Board Member and Head of Ventspils High Technology Park. Before that, she was the Board Member of a research centre and industrial investment company. She has also worked at Ventspils City Council as the Head of the Investment Division.
Dana Reizniece-Ozola has studied International Business at Häme Polytechnic University of Applied Sciences, Finland; law at the College of Law and linguistics at Ventspils University College in Latvia. She obtained a Professional master's degree in Translation and Terminology from Ventspils University College in Latvia and an Executive master's degree of Business Administration from the International Space University in France.
Dana Reizniece-Ozola has managed several projects related to satellite and space technologies, Project for the first Latvian Satellite "Venta-1" development at Ventspils High Technology Park being one of them.

Chess career

Reizniece-Ozola won the Latvian Chess Championship for women in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001. In 1998 and 1999 she won the European Girls Under-18 Chess Championship. In 2000, Reizniece-Ozola competed in the Women's World Chess Championship, held in New Delhi, India; she was eliminated in the first round after losing to Nataša Bojković.
In the 4th round of the 42nd Chess Olympiad in 2016, Reizniece-Ozola defeated Women's World Chess Champion Hou Yifan.
Reizniece-Ozola played for Latvia in the Women's Chess Olympiad:
Dana Reizniece-Ozola played for Latvia in the Women's European Team Chess Championship:
Dana Reizniece-Ozola served as Minister of Finance from 2016 until 2019. She is a member of the Union of Greens and Farmers and a deputy of the 10th,11th and 12th Saeima and has worked as the Chairperson of the Commission on Education, Culture and Science, as a Member of the Legal Affairs Commission and as a Member of the European Affairs Commission. Within the ZZS she is a member of For Latvia and Ventspils.
In November 2017, Reizniece-Ozola submitted her formal application for succeeding Jeroen Dijsselbloem as the next chairman of the Eurogroup. At the vote on December 4, she withdrew after the first round and Mário Centeno was eventually elected to the post.

Other activities

European Union organizations

Reizniece-Ozola is married to Andris Ozols, director of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia.