Name: Theo Waigel.

Age: 61.

Family: Married to Irene Epple. They have three children.

Career: Leader for 10 years of Bavaria's dominant Christian Social Union party, which has governed Bavaria almost continuously since the 1960s. Finance minister from 1989 to 1998. Still a member of parliament and now practises law in Munich.

Why he is in the news: In Dublin today to address Davy Stockbrokers' conference on economic and monetary union.