Markos Kyprianou ( ; born 22 January 1960) is a Cypriot politician who served as a Minister of Foreign Affairs until his official resignation on 19 July 2011, following the events of the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion. A member of the Democratic Party, he was formerly Cyprus's Finance Minister and the European Commissioner for Health. He tendered his resignation as Commissioner on 29 February 2008 to become Foreign Minister in the government of newly elected President Dimitris Christofias; the resignation took effect on 3 March 2008, when his successor, Androulla Vassiliou, was confirmed as Commissioner. Biography Born in Limassol, Kyprianou is the younger son of Spyros Kyprianou, who was President of Cyprus from 1977 to 1988, and former Cypriot First Lady Mimi Kyprianou. He studied law at the Law School of the University of Athens and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he specialised in international law and tax law and was awarded a master's degree in Law (LLM). He earned a second master's degree in law, specialising in Company Law and Taxation, at Harvard Law School. He continued his academic career as a trainee at the Human Rights Commission of the Council of Europe and by carrying out research in international law at the University of Cambridge. As a commissioner, one of his policies was the promotion of warnings on tobacco packets, with the Commission moving towards pictorial warnings. Following several European Union member states enacting bans on smoking in public places Kyprianou proposed a plan for an EU-wide ban of that kind. In May 2007, Kyprianou released a paper to tackle the shortage of organ donation in the Union. The plan included promotion, specially trained medical staff and an EU wide organ donor card. Markos Kyprianou was officially charged on 24 January 2012, together with seven other persons, by the Attorney General of the Republic of Cyprus in relation to the Mari blast. On 9 July 2013, a Cyprus Criminal Court found Markos Kyprianou innocent and acquitted him of all charges. On 9 February 2014, Kyprianou staged a political comeback as he was elected Deputy President of the Democratic Party in Cyprus. Professional C.V. since 1985 practising law 1985–1991 associate with the law firm of Antis Triantafyllides & Sons 1991–1995 partner with the law firm of Kyprianou & Boyiadjis 1995– 2003 partner with the law firm of George L. Savvides & Co (merged with Kyprianou & Boyiadjis) Political