Ingrida Šimonytė

Born on 1974-11-15 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Earned a Master’s degree in Economics at Vilnius University in 1998.

Earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management at Vilnius University in 1996.

Was a lecturer at Vilnius University (Institute of International Relations and Political Science) from 2013 to 2016.

Served as a board member of the Bank of Lithuania from 2013 to 2016.

Was appointed as Lithuania’s Governor on the Board of the European Investment Bank in 2009 (as Minister of Finance).

Served as Undersecretary (Vice-Minister) of the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania from 2004 to 2009.

Served as Director of the Tax Department at the Ministry of Finance from 2002 to 2004.

Worked as Head of the Indirect Taxes Division in Lithuania’s Ministry of Finance from 1998 to 2001.

Began working at the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania in 1997 as a senior economist in the Fiscal Policy Department’s Tax Division.

Is serving as a Member of the Seimas for the 2024–2028 term (XIV Seimas), representing Antakalnis constituency.

Officially joined the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD) party in December 2022.

Was re-elected as a Member of the Seimas for the 2020–2024 term (XIII Seimas).

Became Prime Minister of Lithuania on 2020-11-25, the second woman in Lithuania’s history to hold the post.

Served as a Member of the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) during the 2016–2020 term (XII Seimas).

Since 2016, she has sat with the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrat faction in the Seimas.

Served as Minister of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania from 2009 to 2012.

Has no formal party membership (officially non-partisan).

Appointed Deputy Chair of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs in March 2025.

Became a member of the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence in December 2024.

Member of the Seimas Commission for the Rights of People with Disabilities from 2017 to 2020.

Member of the Seimas Committee on European Affairs from 2016 to 2020.

Chairperson of the Seimas Committee on Audit from 2016 to 2020.

Member of the Seimas Anti-Corruption Commission from 2016 to 2019.

Again re-elected to the Seimas in 2024, winning 53.55% of votes in Antakalnis constituency (outright in the first round).

Ran again for President in 2024, but lost in the runoff, securing only about 24.1% of the vote against incumbent Gitanas Nausėda.

Led the Homeland Union (TS-LKD) party’s candidate list in the 2024 parliamentary elections.

Šimonytė’s share of the vote in Antakalnis dropped in 2024 compared to 2020 – she secured roughly 53.6% of votes in the first round (about 9 percentage points less than in 2020). Nevertheless, this was still above 50%, allowing her to win the constituency outright once again (no runoff required).

Re-elected to the Seimas in 2020, winning 62.18% of votes in the Antakalnis constituency (no runoff needed).

In the October 2020 parliamentary elections, she headed the TS-LKD national candidate list and was re-elected in Antakalnis, receiving about 62.6% of the votes (12,501 votes) in the first round. Again, she won the seat outright without needing a second round.

Ran for President of Lithuania in 2019, advancing to the run-off and receiving roughly one-third of the votes (about 32.9%).

Won the Homeland Union (TS-LKD) party’s internal primary on 2018-11-04 to become its nominee for the 2019 presidential election, earning about 71% of the vote against Vygaudas Ušackas.

Šimonytė has contested three parliamentary elections (2016, 2020, 2024) in the Antakalnis single-member constituency of Vilnius, running with the support of the Homeland Union (TS-LKD). Each time she won the seat outright in the first round without a runoff – securing about 51.5% of the vote in 2016, 62.6% in 2020 (approximately 12,501 votes), and 53.6% in 2024. In both 2020 and 2024, she was also the leader of the TS-LKD national party list, though her victories in the single-member district meant she entered the Seimas via the constituency mandate rather than through the list.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, she was elected to the Seimas from the Antakalnis constituency as a TS-LKD-backed candidate.

In the 2016 Seimas elections, running as a TS-LKD–backed independent, Šimonytė won the Antakalnis single-member constituency outright in the first round with 51.54% of the vote. This allowed her to secure the parliamentary seat without a runoff.

According to her 2022 public asset declaration, she owned a flat (valued ~€90,000) and a house (~€140,000), plus a 24.5 thousand-euro land plot and a car worth ~€20,000. She reported about €11,700 in bank savings and had approximately €51,200 in loans or other debts.

In her 2022 annual asset declaration, Šimonytė listed an apartment (valued €90,000) and a house (€140,000) – unchanged from the prior year – along with €11,700 in savings (up from €8,700 in 2021) and personal liabilities of about €51,200 (down from €57,300). This brought her total declared assets to roughly €277,600, while her outstanding debt decreased as she paid down part of her home loan.

As Prime Minister (2020–2024), her official salary was approximately €5,621 per month gross (about €3,400 "į rankas" net); a rank-and-file Seimas member’s base pay was around €3,433 gross (€2,076 net) per month in 2021.

Between 2014 and 2018, Šimonytė’s personal savings saw a steep decline – from nearly €150,000 in 2014 down to just €3,600 by 2018 – as she left her well-paid Bank of Lithuania position and invested in building a new house. By the end of 2018 she owned a newly constructed home valued around €140,000 (with a mortgage of approximately €53,000), but her bank account balance had dwindled to minimal levels. This sharp fluctuation illustrates how her net worth peaked during her central bank tenure and then dropped when she entered parliament and took on a home loan.

Her asset disclosures over the past decade show significant fluctuations in personal finances. For example, while working at the central bank she accumulated substantial savings (about €149.7k in 2014), but after leaving that job and investing in a new house, her bank balance plunged to only €3.6k by 2018 and she took on roughly €53k in debt. (The house’s declared value was ~€140k.) In subsequent years her savings gradually rebounded (to ~€8.7k in 2021 and €11.7k in 2022) as her outstanding loan balance fell to ~€51k.

During her service on the Board of the Bank of Lithuania (2013–2016), her salary was set at up to 90% of the central bank governor’s salary – roughly in the range of €7,700 per month gross (significantly higher than ministerial pay).

As Minister of Finance (2009–2012), her official monthly salary was about 10,086 LTL (≈€2,920) before taxes, which was the standard ministerial pay at that time.

Her declarations do not list any significant corporate shareholdings or private business assets – essentially all of her declared wealth comes from her salaries and personal property, rather than from business income.

Joined the parliamentary "Friends of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and Riflemen's Union" group on 2025-03-28.

Became a member of the Seimas delegation to the Lithuania–Ukraine Parliamentary Assembly on 2024-12-13.

Served as the Chair (President) of the Vilnius University Council from 2014 to 2016.

Received the Dalia Grinkevičiūtė memorial medal in 2022 for contributions to preserving historical memory (award presented by the ex-deportees’ "Lapteviečiai" community).

Recipient of the Cross of Officer of the Order of Vytautas the Great (awarded in 2015).

Received the “Clear Wave” award for transparent and responsible activities in 2012.

In June 2023, amid an expenses scandal, she proposed a snap parliamentary election and vowed to resign after the July NATO summit if the early election plan was rejected; the Seimas voted down the snap election, and Šimonytė ultimately stayed on as Prime Minister.

As of mid-2023, Šimonytė had not reported any instances of lobbying influence or meetings with lobbyists in the official transparency registry. The ManoSeimas.lt portal (run by Transparency International Lithuania to track declared lobbying contacts) shows zero “patirtos lobistinės įtakos” declarations filed by her. This is consistent with earlier reports (in 2022) that neither she nor the President had declared any such meetings up to that time, suggesting she has not been lobbied in a manner requiring disclosure or has chosen to avoid interactions with registered lobbyists.

By mid-2022, she had not declared any meetings with lobbyists under the transparency rules (which require officials to report lobbying contacts).

Šimonytė has publicly argued that top officials’ salaries are unreasonably low. In late 2021 she stated that the Prime Minister’s pay (about €3,400 "į rankas" net per month in her case) and an ordinary MP’s pay (~€2,100 net) were “not normal”, suggesting that such low compensation can cheapen politics and deter qualified professionals.

Held the rotating presidency of the Baltic Council of Ministers in 2021.

Public access to Šimonytė’s official private interest disclosures is limited to the current declaration available in the VTEK’s online system. The Central Ethical Commission (VTEK) launched an electronic registry (PINREG) for officials’ declarations of private interests only in recent years, meaning that historical declarations filed before the system (for example, those prior to 2020) are not readily accessible to the public on the platform. Thus, only her latest declared data (e.g. roles, memberships, and other interests as currently reported) can be viewed online, while earlier filings would require separate requests to obtain.

Šimonytė is unmarried and has no children. In a 2019 interview, she confirmed she was “vieniša” (single, without a life partner) and said she lives in Vilnius (Antakalnis) with her mother Danutė, who suffers from a severe chronic illness.

She is multilingual, speaking Lithuanian, English, Russian, Polish, and basic Swedish.