Although born in Chicago in 1958 and having grown up in Canada, Ardo Hansson has been Governor of the Bank of Estonia (the central bank), a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB—the second most powerful central bank in the world), and economic advisor to six Estonian Prime Ministers. But few people know his story.
Hansson’s parents left Estonia in 1944 and made their way to North America, where his parents met and married. They settled down in Chicago, where Hansson and his sister Anne were born. He did all the usual “Esto” things as a child: going to the Chicago Eesti Maja, eesti kool on weekends, Estonian church, etc. The family moved to British Columbia (just outside of Vancouver) in 1972, when Hansson was fourteen. The family was active in the Estonian community in Vancouver, home to approximately 1,000 Estonians.
Hansson graduated in economics from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and did his M.A. and Ph.D. (1987) at Harvard University. He returned to British Columbia as an assistant professor at UBC.
