Mārtiņš Staķis

Mārtiņš Staķis was born on 4 July 1979 in Tukums. He is the son of Dagnija Staķe, who used to be Latvian Minister of Regional Development and Local Governments. In 2004, he graduated from the University of Latvia with a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Management, and also did a management programme at the Helsinki School of Economics.

After graduation, he has been involved in a variety of professional projects. Mr Staķis has worked as a marketing director at Narvesen, and since 2010 he has been an entrepreneur and a coffee distributor. He gained recognition in the public eye as the host of Saknes debesīs Tv show on LTV1.

He became prominent in politics with the founding of the Movement For! party in 2017. Between 2018 and 2020 he was an MP at the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) for that party representing the Riga constituency. Mārtiņš Staķis resigned his MP seat in order to run in the Riga local elections in which his party won and he was confirmed as mayor of the city on 2 October 2020.