President gets new spokeswoman

RIGA - Latvian President Valdis Zatlers has appointed Ilze Rassa as his new spokeswoman following the resignation of his former press secretery, Inta Lase.

Rassa is due to take her new office as of December 10, and Maija Celmina,the president's PR adviser, will be working as Zatlers' acting spokeswomanin the meantime.

Rassa has been communications head of Latvia Statoil fuel retailer sinceMay 2007, and has headed the pressroom of the NATO Riga summit previously.

Rassa has a Master's degree from the University of Bradford, UK, and aBachelor's degree in politics from the University of Latvia.

Rassa has worked in the Latvian representation in NATO, the ForeignMinistry's NATO department and the foreign minister's office.

The new president's spokeswoman has taken a professional managementcourse, training courses on negotiations, consulting, project planning andpublic relations. She speaks the English, Russian, French and Spanish.