OREANDA-NEWS. 30 July 2015, the Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) Board of Governors appointed Jaak Aaviksoo to office as rector; the academician will hold the position for five years, starting on 1 September.

Gunnar Okk was elected as the chairman of the Board of Governors.  

8 members of the Board of Governors voted for academician Aaviksoo as the rector in its meeting. Gunnar Okk who holds the position of Vice-President at the Nordic Investment Bank was unanimously elected as the chairman. During 1998–2005 he was the Chairman of the Board of Eesti Energia.

According to the TUT Board of Governors’ chairman Gunnar Okk, the Board of Governors completed the process of electing a new rector that was started back in January. “I wish academician Aaviksoo all the best with developing education and research at the only technological university in Estonia,” Okk says. “The first challenge awaiting the new TUT rector is to conduct the drawing up of the TUT development plan for the next five years.”

The 11-member Board of Governors elected academician Jaak Aaviksoo as the TUT rector on 22 May with 8 votes. The TUT Council opted not to impose a veto on the elected rector during their meeting on 16 June. The Board of Governors that elected the rector is a decision-making body of the TUT with representatives from the University as well as the wider public. The Board of Governors consists of five representatives of the University, one representative of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and five representatives appointed by the Government with a background in business. The 41-member TUT Council on the other hand includes teaching and research staff, administrative and support structure staff and students of the University with the incumbent rector as the chairman on the basis of the Tallinn University of Technology Act.