Sulev Mäeltsemees is an eminent Estonian Public Administration and Local Government scholar and generally held to be the father of Municipal Autonomy in Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

.

Born in Tallinn

Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

, Mäeltsemees received his degrees from the University of Tartu

University of Tartu

The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...

 and worked, among other employment, as Director of the Department of Social Infrastructure and Regional Economics of the Estonian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Economics, 1986-1992. He is currently Professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 and Chair of Regional Policy

Regional policy

-Regional policy in the European Union:Although the European Union is one of the richest parts of the world, there are large internal disparities of income and opportunity between its regions. The May 2004 Enlargement, followed by accession of Bulgaria and Romania in January 2007 has widened these...

 at Tallinn University of Technology

Tallinn University of Technology

Tallinn University of Technology is the only university of technology in Estonia, and one of the three most important institutions of higher education in Estonia generally. It is located in the capital city of Tallinn, Estonia...

 (where he already worked 1978-1986, where he currently also serves as Dean

Dean (education)

In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...

of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. In 1992-1993, during the times of "heavy transition", he was Chairman of the Tallinn City Council, and from 1993-1997 the Director of the Estonian Institute of Public Management, the state’s central in-service training agency for civil servants.

Mäeltsemees’ main areas are Municipal Autonomy, Public Management Reform, and the Management of Local Government.