![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Tarja_Halonen_2003.jpg/150px-Tarja_Halonen_2003.jpg)
Tarja Kaarina Halonen (pronounced ) (born 24 December 1943) is a former President of Finland. She began her first six-year term of office in 2000 and was re-elected on January 29, 2006. Her term expired in 2012. She was the first woman to hold the office.
President Halonen is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.