hockey; he was the CEO of the Finnish Ice Hockey Association from 1976 to 1983 and is currently the NHL Director of Euro Scouting. Education In 1986 Stubb graduated from Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida and, two years later, graduated from the Gymnasiet Lärkan in Helsinki, then completed his military service. Stubb won a golf scholarship to Furman University in South Carolina, United States. He was a member of the Finnish national golf team and intended to become a professional golfer after graduation, but studying with Brent Nelsen and others caused him to quit the sport after a year to focus on his studies. Stubb graduated with a BA degree in political science from Furman University in 1993. The following year he studied French and obtained a Diploma in French Language and Civilisation from the Sorbonne University, Paris, in 1994. Stubb speaks five languages: Swedish, Finnish, English, French and German. In 1995, Stubb graduated with an MA degree in political science (european affairs) from the College of Europe, Belgium. He then performed his doctoral studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, under the supervision of William Wallace, Baron Wallace of Saltaire, and obtained his PhD degree in international politics in June 1999. Wallace later said: "LSE has had a number of extremely bright Finnish students in recent years – but Alex was one of the most outstanding." Stubb's thesis was called Flexible Integration and the Amsterdam Treaty: negotiating differentiation in the 1996–97 IGC (the 1996–97 Intergovernmental Conference of the European Union). Early career Between 1995 and 1997, Stubb was a researcher at the Finnish Foreign Office, and then at the Academy of Finland from 1997 to 1999. In 1997 he began to work also as a columnist. From 1999 to 2001, Stubb was a researcher in Finland's representation in the European Union in Brussels, and a member of the Finnish government's delegation to the intergovernmental negotiations for the Treaty of Nice. In 2000, he became a lecturer at the College of Europe. Following the IGC's conclusion in 2001 he became an adviser to the President of the European Commission (then Romano Prodi) and a member of the Commission Task Force on the European Convention. In 2003 he returned to Finland's representation to the EU as a special expert and to the intergovernmental negotiations, this time for the European Constitution. When that ended in 2004, he