Vilks died over the weekend at the age of 60 after an illness.
“Andris was sharp-minded and did not shy away from difficulties,“ said Mārtiņš Kazāks, President of the Bank of Latvia, on the social network “X”.
From 1987 to 1994, Vilks worked for state institutions and non-governmental organizations, but from 1995 to 2010 he worked for the current “SEB bank,” and from 2007 to 2009 he was the bank's chief economist.
From 2005 to 2010 he was the head of the Economic and Monetary Committee of the Finance Latvia Association (formerly the Association of Commercial Banks of Latvia), and from 2007 to 2008 he was a Member of the Latvian Government's macroeconomic stabilization group.
Vilks was elected to the 10th and 11th Saeima. He was the Minister of Finance from 2010 to 2014, as well as the Latvian Trustee of the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Nordic Investment Bank and the Bank of the Council of Europe. He also took several advisory and representative positions after that.
His work getting the national economy back on track in the wake of a major financial meltdown and IMF bailout won him the respect of his peers, with The Banker magazine naming him Finance Minister of the Year for 2013.
On October 1, 2020, the Saeima appointed Vilks as a Member of the Council of the Bank of Latvia for a term of five years starting on November 16, 2020.
Our condolences to Vilks' family, friends, and colleagues.
