OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2014. Unlike all the t-shirt-clad technogeeks  around him he always looks neat in a dress shirt. Whenever visiting someone he always brings a box of “Kalev” chocolates. And what is even less typical to an Estonian: he would say hi with a warm hug. He never suffocates his listeners with long and loud stories, yet again busting a myth that only the aggressive salesman-types would survive in America.

Andrus Viirg has been the representative of Enterprise Estonia (EE) to Silicon Valley for almost eight years now. Although his office is situated in Plug and Play Technology Center in Sunnyvale one could hardly ever find him sitting in his tiny cubicle. His job is more demanding, mostly introducing Estonia as a possible investment target but also representing Estonian startups in Silicon Valley.

Therefore there is a high likelihood to see Andrus in any of the events in Silicon Valley that have anything to do with Estonia. Be it connecting visiting Estonian entrepreneurs to local “who’s whos”, introducing his country to the students at Stanford or Berkeley or hosting a dinner in the honour of Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves visiting California. But he’s also played a supportive role to the local Estonian community: for the traditional Independence Day celebration of the San Francisco Estonian Society the blue-black-and-white flag will be raised high in Plug and Play Tech Center and last year the center also hosted Estonian Christmas Fair.