Andres Ilves is a journalist at the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, head of the Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 and Pashto Service of the BBC World Service

BBC World Service

The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

, responsible for BBC radio and online output in the languages of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Tajikistan

Tajikistan

Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....

, and the border areas of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.

Between 2009 and 2011 Ilves was currently the Head of Development for BBC Global News Marketing, Communications, and Audiences, but continues to speak and write about current affairs, appearing on television as well.

He is also the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Peace Direct

Peace Direct

Peace Direct is a charity based in London, England which supports grassroots peacebuilders in areas of conflict. Peace Direct focuses on supporting grassroots peacebuilders who are local to the conflict and have a clear vision of what needs to be achieved. Peace Direct funds this work, promotes it...

, a UK-based charity providing support to peace builders in a dozen conflict zones around the world, and serves on the advisory board of iMediate, a social enterprise using media and communications to promote non-violent solutions to conflict.

Childhood, Education, Early Career

Ilves was born in New Jersey, United States, to Estonian

Estonians

Estonians are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting, primarily, the country of Estonia. They speak a Finnic language known as Estonian...

 refugee parents. He graduated with honours from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, with a degree in Near Eastern Studies.

After Princeton, Ilves spent a year as a Coro Foundation Fellow in Los Angeles, and then as a Rotary Scholar at the Universiteit van Amsterdam

Universiteit van Amsterdam

The University of Amsterdam or the UvA is a public research university located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Founded in 1632 as the Athenaeum Illustre by the scholars Gerardus Vossius and Caspar Barlaeus, it is the third-oldest university in the Netherlands...

, in The Netherlands. Ilves then worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, Germany as a journalist, analyst, and translator focusing on Afghanistan, as well as on ethnic and linguistic minority issues around the world.

Ilves also spent time in California as a legislative and media aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre

Richard Alatorre

Richard Alatorre is an American politician from California. He served as a prominent member of the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1985, and as a noted member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1985 to 1999.-Background:...

 and San Francisco Supervisor Terence Hallinan

Terence Hallinan

Terence Hallinan is an American attorney and politician from San Francisco, California. He is the second of six sons born to leftist attorney Vincent Hallinan and his wife Vivian....

. Following Hallinan’s election as San Francisco District Attorney, Ilves served as his Chief of Administration.

After time spent working on an election monitoring and political party capacity building project in Serbia for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs

The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs is an organization created by the United States government by way of the National Endowment for Democracy to channel grants for furthering democracy in developing nations. It was founded in 1983, shortly after the U.S. Congress created...

 (NDI), Ilves served more than three years as the executive director of the Names Project Foundation, the sponsor of the international AIDS Memorial Quilt

NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt, is an enormous quilt made as a memorial to and celebration of the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes...

.

Since September 11th

Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Ilves returned to his previous specialty of Afghanistan, becoming the first director of the newly-established Radio Free Afghanistan

Radio Free Afghanistan

Radio Free Afghanistan is the Afghan branch of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s broadcast services. It broadcasts 12 hours daily as part of a 24 hour stream of programming in conjunction with Voice of America . RFA first aired in Afghanistan from 1985 to 1993 and was re-launched in January 2002...

, based in Prague, Czech Republic. In 2003, he was appointed by the US Broadcasting Board of Governors to oversee US international broadcasting to Iran as well, as the first director of Radio Farda

Radio Farda

Radio Farda is the Iranian Branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's broadcast services. It broadcasts 24 hours a day in the Persian language from its headquarters Prague, Czech Republic. Radio Farda first aired December 2002. Radio Farda broadcasts political, cultural, social, and art news...

.

In November 2004, Ilves was appointed Head of the BBC World Service’s output in the Persian, Pashto, Dari

Dari (Eastern Persian)

Dari or Fārsī-ye Darī in historical terms refers to the Persian court language of the Sassanids. In contemporary usage, the term refers to the dialects of modern Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, and hence known as Afghan Persian in some Western sources. It is the term officially recognized...

, and Tajik

Tajik language

Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...

 languages. He also played an integral role in setting up the new BBC Persian-language television

BBC Persian Television

BBC Persian Television is the BBC's Persian language news channel that was launched on 14 January 2009. The service can be accessed through satellite television, and is aimed at the 100 million Persian speakers in Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan....

 channel, which launched in January 2009.

Since July 2009, Ilves is Head of Development for BBC Global News Marketing, Communications, and Audiences.

Miscellaneous

Ilves is a passionate linguist, speaking numerous languages besides his native Estonian and English, including Dutch, French, German, Pashto, Persian, and Portuguese. He has been studying isiZulu for several years now, including at the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Ilves listens primarily to kwaito

Kwaito

Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music featuring the use of African sounds and samples. Typically at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music, Kwaito often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples,...

 and hip hop

Hip hop

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...

 music; his favourite music stations are Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

's youth station YFM

YFM

YFM is a "Youth" radio station in Johannesburg, South Africa. Established in 1997, the station is formatted to mostly play urban music genres such as Kwaito, Hip Hop, and R&B along with minority of its airtime dedicated to talk shows. As noted by the name, the station's core audience consists of...

 and the BBC's black music station 1Xtra. He lives in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 but travels to Afghanistan and the surrounding region for work, and to Africa for leisure and his volunteer work. Ilves feels particularly strong ties to the township

Township (South Africa)

In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...

 of Soweto

Soweto

Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...

 in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. Ilves’ brother Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Toomas Hendrik Ilves

Toomas Hendrik Ilves is the fourth and current President of Estonia. He is a former diplomat and journalist, was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s and later a member of the European Parliament...

is the President of Estonia.