Haav has been elected CEO by the e-residency supervisory board and will start working for the program from January 4.

Haav co-founded MarkIT.eu and has previously held leading positions in Estonian IT and fintech companies Proekspert, Monese and Helmes. He studied English language and literature at the University of Tartu and international business management at Concordia International University Estonia.

"I joined the e-Residency team with the desire to give back to Estonia - my motivation is that simple. I can make the best use of my previous experience and network in managing the program. E-Residency has given the Estonian state a good opportunity to punch above its weight and has realized the vision of the state as a service," Haav said.

"The restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the outdated way of thinking that has so far hindered location independent work. E-Residency solves a very important problem for large companies - the ability to contract talent from anywhere in the world – while at the same time empowering solo entrepreneurs.  Right now, we are seeing a significant shift in the world of work, and this is a major opportunity to position e-Residency and Estonia at the forefront of remote work and entrepreneurship," explains Haav.

The management of the various stages of the e-residency program development has been under focus throughout 2020 and the initial plans to change leadership were hampered by the COVID-19 epidemic. Founded in 2014 as a national startup, the program is looking for ways to exit the seed initiative phase and make a leap forward.

Taavi Kotka, chairman of the supervisory board of the e-residency program, said: "E-Residency is a public-private partnership project that enables foreign entrepreneurs to contribute to the Estonian economy and generates tens of millions of euros in tax revenue for the state. We were looking for a person with experience in building an international business and it's great that Lauri agreed to accept the challenge of e-Residency."

Siim Sikkut, deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications for ICT, said: "As head of the program, one of Lauri's most important tasks is to lead the development of the next steps of e-Residency's strategy, which will follow the implementation of the e-Residency 2.0 program."

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