On June 29 in Gütersloh Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former president of Estonia, received our 2017 Reinhard Mohn Prize. The topic for the 2017 prize was "Smart Country – Connected. Intelligent. Digital." Liz Mohn, vice-chair of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, presented the €200,000 award. "Digitalization must be actively managed every day," she said. "This is a challenge that civil society and policymakers can meet only in dialogue with the business community. Ilves has done exactly that, making him a worthy recipient of the Reinhard Mohn Prize."
We are also honoring Ilves as a politician who was quick to recognize the possibilities that came with digitalization. "With the Reinhard Mohn Prize, we recognize individuals who not only conceived of groundbreaking initiatives, but also implemented them. Toomas Hendrik Ilves is thus both a pioneering thinker and a driving force who has made Estonia a 'Smart Country' in the truest sense of the word," said Aart De Geus, chair of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board.
Have a look at Toomas Hendrik Ilves' pioneering work on digitalization in our Video: