Grybauskaite, Dalia, 1956–, Lithuanian politician, president of Lithuania (2009–14). A member of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (1983–89) and the Communist party of Lithuania (1989–90), Grybauskaite was a lecturer (1983–90) at the Communist party training college in Vilnius. Subsequently a political independent, she worked in Lithuania's ministries of economic relations and foreign affairs after the country's independence from the Soviet Union. From 1996 to 1999 she was a diplomat at Lithuania's U.S. embassy, then served as deputy finance minister (1999–2000), deputy foreign minister (2000–2001), and finance minister (2001–4). After serving on the European Commission as commissioner for financial programming and the budget (2004–9), Grybauskaite was elected (2009) president of Lithuania, becoming the first woman to hold the position; she was reelected in 2014.
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