Speakers for the Arrival Orientation for U.S. Fulbrighters

Ilkka Haavisto is Research Manager at Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA. He has worked with a wide range of economic and social issues including public sector reform, taxation, labour market and the EU. He graduated from Åbo Akademi University (economics and philosophy) in 2000.

Birger Holm currently works as a Vice Principal, History and Civics Teacher at Haukilahti School in Espoo. He is the U.S. State Department’s Voluntary Visitor Program alumnus and has promoted interdisciplinary studies in Finland by inspiring English teachers to introduce more U.S. History content in English classes.

Teemu Kokko Ph.D. (Econ.) and adjunct professor is the President at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland. During his career he has lived and worked abroad a total of nine years (Moscow, Budapest and Oslo) and he is deeply involved in numerous international activities.Teemu is an ad hoc columnist for two Finnish hospitality industry magazines.

Timo Korkeamäki is the Dean of Aalto University Business School. He received his PhD in International Finance from University of South Carolina in 2001. Prior to joining Aalto University, he has taught at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, and at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. Timo is a member of the Fulbright Finland Foundation Board of Directors.

Johanna Lahti is a sauna advocate and a member of the Finnish Sauna Society, a cultural association fostering the heritage of the national bath. She bathes several times a week and enjoys all kinds of saunas from public saunas to her own city apartment sauna. Johanna is a staff alumna of the Fulbright Finland Foundation.

Pirita Näkkäläjärvi is an elected member of the Sámi Parliament in Finland. She is a strategy and communications professional with a unique career combining global business and indigenous advocacy. In 2012-16 Pirita headed the Sámi-language arm of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle. Currently she works as an M&A Director in the energy sector. Pirita comes from a reindeer-herding family in Inari, Sápmi. 

Teemu Turunen has served as the Ambassador of Finland to Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Currently he is the director at the Center for Mediation at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Sanni Törmänen is a graduate student at the University of Jyväskylä. She specializes in Finnish as a second and foreign language pedagogy, and completed the Fulbright Finnish Language and Culture Teaching Assistant (FLTA) program in 2019-20 at Indiana University, Bloomington. 

Alexis (Alex) Wolff assumed the role of Consul at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland in July 2020. She joined the Department of State in 2010 from the educational travel industry and has since served in consular and public diplomacy roles in Cotonou, Benin; Guadalajara, Mexico; Chennai; India, and Washington, D.C. Alex has an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Columbia and a BA in Africa Studies from Yale. She studied abroad in Norway and Niger and completed the Fulbright-Hayes Group Project Abroad (Zulu) in South Africa. She hails from rural Illinois and is joined in Finland by her husband and two young sons.