| 1959 | Graduated from the University of Oulu, Finland |
| 1965-1973 | Various posts in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland |
| 1973-1976 | Ambassador of Finland to the United Republic of Tanzania |
| 1975-1976 | Ambassador of Finland accredited to Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique |
| | Member of the Senate of the UN Institute for Namibia |
| 1977-1981 | United Nations Commissioner for Namibia |
| 1978-1988 | Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia |
| 1984-1986 | Under-Secretary of State in charge of International Development Co-operation in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland |
| 1987-1991 | Under-Secretary General in the UN for Administration and Management |
| 1989-1990 | Under-Secretary General in the UN for Administration and Management, leading the UN operation (UNTAG) in Namibia |
| 1991-1993 | State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland |
| 1992-1993 | Chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Working Group of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia and as Special Adviser to the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia and to the Secretary General's Special Representative for former Yugoslavia in 1993. |
| 1994-2000 | President of the Republic of Finland |
| | After leaving the office of the President, Martti Ahtisaari founded an NGO, Crisis Management Initiative. Most of his post-presidential tasks have dealt with conflict resolution, crisis management and peace mediation. |
| 2000 | Inspector of the IRA's arms' dumps with fellow inspector Cyril Ramaphosa |
| 2003 | Chair of an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq |
| 2003-2004 | Personal Envoy of the OSCE CiO for Central Asia |
| 2003-2005 | UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa |
| 2005 | Facilitator in the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. The process lead to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that ended the three decade-long conflict in Aceh. |
| 2005-2008 | Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo |
| 2005 | Facilitated the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement. |
| 2005-2008 | Acted as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosovo. |
| | Current tasks: |
| | Chairman of the Board, Crisis Management Initiative |
| | Co-Chair in European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) |
| | Chairman of the Governing Council of Interpeace |
| | Director-At-Large of the ImagineNations Group and Board of Directors of Silatech |
| | Member of the Prize Committee of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation |
| | Member of the International Senior Advisory Board of West Asia North Africa (WANA) Regional forum |
| | Chairman of Independent Commission on Turkey examining the challenges and opportunities presented by Turkey's possible membership in the European Union |
| | In Finland, President Ahtisaari is active on the corporate governing board of Elcoteq SE and acts as the Chairman of the supervisory board of the Finnish National Opera. |
