President Peter M. Christian

His Excellency Peter M. Christian is the 8th President of the Federated States of Micronesia.
He was born in Pohnpei on October 16, 1947. He is a graduate of Xavier High School in Chuuk and went on to the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a recipient of the 1968 East-West Center Scholarship. 
 
Being among the first fourteen members to be elected to the First FSM Congress in 1979, Christian began his political career by setting the record as the youngest elected member of the national body at the age of 32. He was later conferred as the most senior Member of the Congress, having been a public servant spanning over 3 decades. 
 
With a long political career of exemplary service to various government bodies, his early years in public service included key positions serving as the Employment Service Officer for the then Ponape District in 1970 and Ponape Field Service Officer in 1971. 
 
His extensive diplomatic experience began during the formative stages of the Federated States of Micronesia. His rise in his political career took off when he was elected as representative of Kolonia Town to the Ponape District Legislature in 1975 and maintained his seat throughout the transitional phases from the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) to a newly independent Federated States of Micronesia. 
 
While Christian has had active roles at the international level throughout his public career, he has also been active at the grassroots community level. Of particular notability include Christian's chairing of the FSM Task Force--which planned the transition from Exxon Mobil Corporation with the Nation's own FSM Petroleum Corporation--and serving as the Chief Negotiator for the Amended Compact of Free Association with the United States of America.
 
Christian was elected to the Speakership for the 13th and 14th Congress of the FSM, becoming the fourth Speaker of the national body. He represented Pohnpei State’s Congressional Election District Three to the First FSM Congress and maintained his seat for the next 28 years.
 
While a long promising political career groomed him for key positions throughout his years in governance, Christian also served as the Secretary of Resources and Development until he ran and won the Pohnpei State at-large seat in 2009.
 
In 2012, Pacific region’s leading think-tank--The Pacific Institute of Public Policy--invited Christian to represent Micronesia to debate the other Pacific archipelagos of Polynesia and Melanesia on the issue of Island States Neutrality in the Era of Strategic Contest. He was pitted against the South Pacific’s top guns the likes of former US Congressman Eni Faleomavaega of American Samoa, Major General Jerry Singirok of Papua New Guinea and Fiji’s Minister Kalipate Tavola.
 
President Christian was elected as the 8th President of the Federated States of Micronesia and was sworn into office on May 11, 2015. He is married to  Maurina Weilbacher Christian and they have two children and five grandchildren.