Htin Kyaw (Burmese: , pronounced: [t t ] or [t d ]; born 20 July 1946) is a

Burmese politician and scholar who has been President of Myanmar since 2016. He is the first
elected president to hold the office with no ties to the military since the 1962 coup d'tat. The
second son of scholar Min Thu Wun, Htin Kyaw had held various positions in the education,
planning and treasury ministries in prior governments.
The ethnic Mon-Bamar politician is viewed as a proxy of the National League for Democracy
leader and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who is constitutionally barred from the
presidency. He was inaugurated as president on 30 March 2016, taking office from his
predecessor Thein Sein.

Early life and education

Htin Kyaw with his father Min Thu Wun in 1952

Htin Kyaw was born in Rangoon, British Burma (now Myanmar), to the late Burmese scholar
and poet Min Thu Wun and Kyi Kyi.[1][2]
Htin Kyaw graduated high school from English Methodist High School in 1962. He enrolled at
the Rangoon Institute of Economics (then part of Rangoon Arts and Science University) and
graduated with an M.Econ. in statistics in 1968. He started working as a teacher while studying
towards his master's degree.[3] He then moved to the University Computer Centre as a
programmer/system analyst in 1970.
Htin Kyaw pursued further studies on a scholarship to the Institute of Computer Science,
University of London in 19711972 and attended computer studies in Asia Electronics Union,

Tokyo in 1974. He completed his second master's degree in 1975.[1][4] He attended a course at the
Arthur D. Little School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1987.[5][6]

Career
In 1975, Htin Kyaw joined to the Ministry of Industry 2 as a Deputy Division Chief.[7] In 1980,
he was appointed as a Deputy Director in the Foreign Economic Relations Department, Ministry
of Planning and Finance, and resigned from government service in 1992.[1]
He was arrested on 22 September 2000, and spent four months in Insein prison for assisting
Aung San Suu Kyi's trip outside Yangon.[8] From 2012, he worked as a senior executive for Daw
Khin Kyi Foundation, founded by Aung San Suu Kyi and named after her mother Khin Kyi.
Though not a veteran member of the NLD, Kyaw worked very closely with Aung San Suu Kyi at
the Office of NLD Chairperson.
He was mentioned as a possible presidential pick after the NLD won a sweeping victory in the
2015 general election. Aung San Suu Kyi was constitutionally barred from the presidency, since
her late husband and both of her children are British citizens; the constitution does not allow a
president, his parents, his spouse, or his children to "owe allegiance to a foreign power." Upon
his nomination, Aung San Suu Kyi said she had chosen him for his truthfulness, loyalty and
respectable education.[9][10][11]