Erik Illes is born in 1963 and has a family with two adult children. Since August 2019 he is serving as Deputy Head of Mission/Head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Sweden in Tibilisi. Georgia. He has been working for the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency since 1997 and during this period has served at the Swedish Embassies in Laos, Cambodia, Bosnia & Herzegovina. He also has experience from positions in UNICEF in Vientiane and with the European Commission in Brussels. During his career in development cooperation and international relations he has been responsible for areas including democratic governance, human rights, transitional justice, civil society development, sustainable development, and multilateral coordination. Prior to working in development cooperation, he worked as a journalist and as a musician. He holds a BA in Social Sciences from Uppsala University and speaks English, Hungarian, Spanish and Lao.