Edi Rama is a politician, artist, and publicist. He is currently the Mayor of Tirana, capital of Albania and President of the Albanian Socialist Party.

On October 2000, Mr Rama ran for the mayoralty of Tirana as an independent candidate supported by the Socialist Party of Albania and gathered 57% of the votes and was elected Mayor of Tirana. Mayor Rama was re-elected for his second mandate in December 2003 as Mayor, and for his third term in February 2007. Mr Rama has also been President of the Albanian Association of Mayors. Mr Rama is a Professor of Arts in the Albanian Academy of Arts and served as Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports from 1998-2000.

Mr Rama is one of the founders and key player of the democratic movement that brought about the collapse of the communist state in 1990-1992. He is a founding member of the Movement for Democracy, a political group that played a determining role in the struggle for democracy during 1996-1997.

Mr Rama’s articles and analysis have appeared in several newspapers and magazines such as Albania’s largest magazine, Klan Magazine, and leading Albanian newspapers such as Shekulli and Koha Jone, as well as in The New York Times, The Guardian, Panorama, Frankfurter Allhemeine Zeitung, The Independent, and World Link Magazine, an edition of the World Economic Forum, which selected Mayor Rama in the Dream Cabinet for 2002 among other world political personalities including the then Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani. Mr Rama has also produced several personal painting exhibitions in Europe, North and South America, and elsewhere. Personal exhibitions include Janos Gallery, New York (1993), Place de Mediatheque, France (1995), Palais Jalta, Frankfurt, (1997), Acud, Berlin, (1993), Sao Paolo, Brazil (1994) and National Gallery, Albania (1992) and Gallery XXI, Albania (1999).

He is a former Board Member of the Open Society Foundation, Albania, a non-profit foundation that promotes democracy and open market reforms established and financed by financier and philanthropist George Soros. Currently he is a member of the Regional Advisory Board of the United Nations Development Program. In October 2002, on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Mayor Rama received an award for his work on environmental issues that have contributed to the fight against poverty. The award was delivered at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, by then General Secretary Kofi Annan. In February 2003, Mayor Rama was chosen to serve as the Year 2002/2003 Robert C Wood Visiting Professorship of Public and Urban Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Harvard University. In October 2003, Mr Rama joined the Socialist Party. In December 2004, the non commercial organization CITYMAYORS, located in London, recognized Mayor Rama as the World Mayor 2004 in an international competition that took place for one year, based on direct voting by internet. In October 2005, Mayor Rama was elected by the extraordinary Congress of the Socialist Party as President of the Party. In October 2005 he was chosen as one of the European Heroes 2005 by Time Magazine, a tribute to 37 people who are changing the world for the better.