Diana Nausėdienė ( Nepaitė; born 9 July 1964) is a Lithuanian business manager and lecturer, she is the wife of the current

President of Lithuania The President of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Prezidentas) is the head of state of Lithuania. The officeholder has been Gitanas Nausėda since 12 July 2019. Powers The president has somewhat more executive authority tha ...

Gitanas Nausėda Gitanas Nausėda (born 19 May 1964) is a Lithuanian economist, politician and banker who is serving as the ninth and incumbent President of Lithuania since 2019. He was previously director of monetary policy at the Bank of Lithuania from 1996 un ...

and has served as the First Lady of Lithuania since 12 July 2019.

Early life

Nausėdienė was born in Klaipėda, Lithuania where she was brought up in a traditional Lithuanian household. Nausėdienė's father was the captain of a long distance fishing boat and her mother was an accountant, she has a sister who is three years her elder.

Career and education

In 1987, Nausėdienė graduated from the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute Faculty of Light Industry (now

Kaunas University of Technology Kaunas University of Technology (abbreviated as KTU, ) is a public research university located in Kaunas, Lithuania. Established in 1922, KTU has been one of the top centers of Lithuanian science education. According to Lithuanian National Univ ...

). After graduation, Nausėdienė worked for H&M Hennes & Mauritz GBC AB where she performed quality management and standards maintenance, before becoming a lecturer at the Vilnius University International Business School. Speaking at an event on women's leadership in September 2020, Nausėdienė caused controversy when she argued that increasing the share of women in any given field did not automatically lead to better outcomes, giving education as an example. Commentators accused Nausėdienė of blaming women for the ills in Lithuania's education system, saying she had completely missed the root of the problem.

Honours

Foreign honours

* : Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (24 October 2022)

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Nausediene, Diana 1964 births 20th-century Lithuanian people First Ladies of Lithuania People from Klaipėda Living people Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)