Position: Romanian President
Incumbent: Traian Basescu, 59
Date of birth: Nov. 4, 1951
Term: Directly elected, Basescu won his current mandate in December 2009 after a previous five-year term. His tenure lasts until the next election in late 2014 and he is not eligible for re-election.
Key facts: Romania's third president after the 1989 anti-communist revolution, the straight-talking former sea captain has drawn international praise for giving support to the Black Sea state's efforts to fight deeply rooted corruption and for preparing Romania to join the European Union in 2007.
A rank-and-file communist party member, a must for any ocean-going captain in the 1980s during the rule of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Basescu's only claim to fame was praise from the party newspaper in 1985 for being a good sailor.
As a transport minister in the 1990s, he spearheaded the privatisation of Romania's vast but rusting commercial fleet.
Pledging to reform Romania's murky political class, Basescu first shot to power in 2004 when he unseated veteran communist-turned socialist President Ion Iliescu. In 2009 he narrowly won his second mandate against leftist opponent Mircea Geoana.
In 2006, researchers of the country's communist-era secret police cleared him of accusations he collaborated with the feared Securitate. He opened the Securitate archives to the public in 2005 and officially condemned crimes of communism a year later.
The centre-right campaigner against corruption has a confrontational and abrasive style, which has contributed to a gradual erosion of his support since the global financial crisis hit Romania in 2008 and to the collapse of two governments during his first mandate.
Three-quarters of voters opposed impeaching Basescu in 2007 on opposition charges that he overstepped his authority.
He is no stranger to scandal. He has been accused of racial slurs and insulting journalists, as well as nepotism after his daughter, a former tabloid favourite with a high-profile clubbing lifestyle, rose quickly through politics to win a seat in the European parliament.
He became Bucharest mayor in 2000 in a landslide victory against the Social Democrat party candidate, ex-foreign minister Geoana. Basescu's campaign used the red pepper as a symbol -- a staple of Romanian cooking and a warning to his rivals that he stings.
As mayor, he caused a stir by bulldozing thousands of illegal kiosks and trying to rid the capital of hoards of stray dogs, resisting criticism from Western animal rights activists. (Reporting by Radu Marinas and Ioana Patran; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)