Seimas appoints Prof. Modestas Gelbūda to the post of Secretary General of the Seimas

Press release, 27 April 2021

 

Having considered the nomination presented by Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Speaker of the Seimas, the Parliament voted in a secret ballot to appoint Modestas Gelbūda, a Professor at ISM University of Economics and Management and an expert in international business and management, as Secretary General of the Seimas for a five-year term. Mr Gelbūda will commence his term of office as Secretary General on 29 April 2021.

Photo by Olga Posaškova, Office of the Seimas

 

A total of 68 MPs voted in favour of Mr Gelbūda’s appointment (draft Resolution of the Seimas No XIVP-424), with 41 MPs against and 15 abstentions.

Mr Gelbūda completed his PhD studies in International Business and Management at Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark. During his PhD studies, he was invited to work as a visiting doctoral student at Stanford University, USA, and Uppsala University, Sweden. He later gained expertise at the prestigious London Business School. Mr Gelbūda co-founded the Baltic Institute for Leadership Development. He was a board member in the Knowledge Economy Forum and the National HRM Association. He currently heads the Economy and Management Section at the National Student Academy.

According to Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen, Mr Gelbūda has always striven to balance high scientific standards with opportunities to generate valuable insights for management practice. ‘I am convinced that he will apply these wonderful qualities and knowledge in the Office of the Seimas to make it a modern, innovative and effective institution’, said Ms Čmilytė-Nielsen when presenting Gelbūda’s nomination at the Seimas.

Prior to the secret ballot, Mr Gelbūda claimed of his great willingness to contribute to the development of a modern, advanced, as well as intellectually strong and expertise-driven Office, which will assist Members and Committees of the Seimas and the institution as a political organisation in general to adopt the most important decisions affecting the life of Lithuania not only one year ahead, but also for decades to come.

Mr Gelbūda is convinced that of particular value in the discharge of the duties of Secretary General of the Seimas will be the experience, know-how, understanding of the world, and first-hand expertise of the very different management processes in various countries that he has accumulated, as well as his research into Lithuania’s public sector, the causes for the backlog of reforms, the reasons for the failure of management processes and management methods to deliver results, as well as into the expectations and wishes of people as to the kind of management they want and the contribution they are ready to make to the improvement of the public sector and effective and harmonious work of the Seimas, as an esteemed and important institution.

 

Pursuant to the Statute of the Seimas, the Secretary General of the Seimas is appointed in the manner prescribed by law for the period of five years and dismissed by the Seimas on the recommendation of the Speaker of the Seimas. The Secretary General of the Seimas is the head of the Office of the Seimas.

The Secretary General of the Seimas, being a civil servant, is the head of the institution who is responsible and accountable to the Seimas and the Board of the Seimas. The position of Secretary General of the Seimas is incompatible with participation in the activities of political parties or political organisations.

 

Rimas Rudaitis, Chief Specialist, Press Office, Information and Communication Department, tel.: +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]