Friday September 14 – Helsinki, Finland

I ended my fellowship in Finland with several key meetings today. 

I had the opportunity to meet with Marcus Rantala, State Secretary for Defense at the Ministry of Defence in Helsinki.  In addition to providing perspectives from his current position he offered insight from his previous position working at the Minister of Culture, Sport and Gender Equality Affairs. 

The key takeaways from the meeting were the importance of leadership placing an emphasis on diversity and to have men championing the issue as well as women leaders.  In Finland there was a time when both the Minister of Social Affairs and Equality and the State Secretary for that organization were men, which sent a signal that it isn’t just a women’s issue.

AmCham Finland

AmCham - Suvi, Alexandra, Kristiina, Carol, Nina

The American Chamber of Commerce in Finland hosted a round table with several leading women in Finland 

Kristiina Helenius, CEO AmCham Finland

Alexandra Pasternak-Jackson, Int’l Business Engagement, AmCham Finland

Suzanne Innes-Stubb, Counsel at White & Case, Chair of AmCham Women’s Network

Nina Kurth, Executive IBM Finland

Leena Munter, Director, Manpower Group

Suvi Sundquist, Safety and Security Programme Manager, TEKES

This was a wonderful wrap up to three weeks of various discussions.  Collectively our group was quite diverse in type of industry, size of company, years of experience and international experience.  All of the participants were passionate about the issue of growing and developing future leaders with an emphasis on women leadership.  Several had multi-national experience and were able to compare and contrast women’s leadership in several regions. 

A few key ideas/themes emerged:  1) Sponsorship is critical (active mentoring), 2) a diversity scorecard should be employed in the company and leaders should be held accountable for taking action on the soft skills just as they are on the financials and performance indicators and 3) developing a network is critical and since women are less likely to do this on their own leaders need to place emphasis on assisting in this, 4) Transparency – leaders need to discuss the plans to get a more diverse team and similar to Mr. Rantala’s perspective, men need to discuss and focus on the issue just as much as the female leaders. 

The groups’ perspective on why there has been success in Finland was flexibility in the workplace, legislation has had an impact, and in many public and private sectors, Finland has recognized the need for balance.  Collectively the group all felt that there was still progress to be made in developing more diverse teams in Finland, especially in the senior leadership ranks and in the technical industry. 

Finland Eisenhower Fellows

I was hosted for lunch by two of Finland’s Eisenhower Fellows:  Gunvor Kronman and Elisabeth Helander.  It was nice to exchange ideas on how to continue the fellowship experience beyond the in-country time.  They both shared perspectives on how to keep the exchange alive and have consequential outcomes. 

My final appointment of the fellowship was with Tarja Filatov, Chairwoman, Finnish Parliament, Employment and Equality Committee.  She shared her perspective on how women’s leadership has changed since the 1990’s and how various legislation has helped move the needle during that time, including a focus on daycare and legislation put in place by the Prime Minister to ensure that the political landscape had diversity.  Tarja’s perspective is that there is still a need to improve diversity in the various labor markets as some are comprised entirely of women (social sector) and others are still highly concentrated with men (technical sectors).

Thursday September 13 – Helsinki, Finland

Finnish Defence Industry

Today began with a discussion with the chair of the Finnish Defense Industry, Kari Heinistö.   Our dialog ranged from discussion on the current defense industry to his work experience leading a large aerospace company and now as a member of Aventum Partners. 

His perspective on women in leadership is that the focus right now tends to be on the top, when in fact industry should be focused on developing the pool of candidates and broadening the base for the future.  The engineering field in Finland is lacking a diverse population which is a similar issue in the US.  

Women's Enterprise Agency

I met with the current director of Naisyrittajyyskeskus (Women's Enterprise Agency), Taru Päivike.  She has led this organization for the last 4 years continuing the mentoring and networking opportunities for female entrepreneurs that were first established in 1996.  The organization was originally established as a one year project but today continues to offer mentors, training and networking for female entrepreneurs.  Taru believes that there needs to be more emphasis on attracting women to technical fields.  She suggested programs starting at an early age to attract girls to technical fields such as a pilot.  She herself recently got her pilots license and would like to show how math and physics were a necessary part of learning to fly. 

When asked what drives the Finnish percent of women in leadership she indicated three things:  the daycare system, the culture of equality and legislation requiring that the same job be available following a 3 year maternity leave. 

Sights in Helsinki



Helsinki Cathedral




The Wooden Chapel in center city



Wednesday September 12 - Oulu, Finland

Oulu is referred to as the capital of Northern Scandinavia.  This year they also have another honor and that is inclusion in the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of the Year.   

The Top Seven represent models of economic and social transformation in the 21st Century. Each community exemplifies best practices in broadband deployment and use, workforce development, innovation, digital inclusion and advocacy that offer lessons to regions, cities, towns and villages around the world.  It is only fitting to begin discussion of my trip to Oulu with this introduction, as the majority of the day focused on innovation and economic development.



Oulu City Hall Monument



Oulu University of Applied Sciences

My first discussion of the day was with Terttu Savela, Project Coordinator fMBA Program and Minna Åman-Toivio, fMBA Trainer at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences.  The fMBA program at the University is part of a 4 part project called fForum that has been in place since 2008.  The 4 part program was launched to fit the need for an increasing demand of future entrepreneurs and established a program focused on females.  The program consists of fPro, fStart, fFirm and fMBA.  There have been 200 participants in the range of programs and 30 have started their own businesses in the Oulu area.  This is one of the only programs of its kind in place and the future holds potential for sharing best practices to other universities across Europe via IForum. 

City of Oulu

I had the opportunity to enjoy lunch in the City Hall with

Anne Rännäli-Kontturi, International Affairs Manager

Sirkka-Liisa Kangasharju, Human Resources Specialist

Taini Pitkänen-Koli, Vice Chair Viability Committee

Milja Rautiainen, Product Manager Technopolis

The discussion included the topic of Oulu’s planned growth strategy, how they are dealing with a potential downturn at Nokia (strong presence in Oulu) and what they have seen in women in leadership in the local community.  Taini has been part of the political landscape in Oulu for many years and has seen many positive changes in the decision making bodies as they have grown more diverse.  Some of the themes that came out in the discussion that have attributed to more women in leadership were:  independent culture and attitudes, women are highly educated in Finland, a strong sense of responsibility and the war history. (a common theme)

Employment and Economy Development Center of Northern Ostrobothia

I met one-on-one with Leila Helaakoski who has been the director of the Employment and Economic Development Center in Northern Ostrobothia since 1997.  She shared her personal leadership journey on being the first ever female director of the city’s Agricultural Development Center and truly being a pioneer in the field.  She has never focused on the fact that she is often the only female in her field, but rather that she brings a certain skillset to a meeting or an event that is required.  She juggled a career and family in a time in Finland where the social infrastructure didn’t provide for as many services as they do now and equal possibilities for all wasn’t as much of a focus. 

As many have indicated her perspective on Finland’s success in women in leadership is in part due to the recent wars that Finland has experienced.  The women were required to run businesses while the men were away fighting the war and they continued to run them when the wars were over. 

Balmuir

Lastly I had the unique opportunity to meet with Heidi Jaara, Entrepreneur and head of the Balmuir Exclusive Collection.  She has led her own company for the past several years, after leaving a management position at Nokia, where she had worked for 10 years.  She left Nokia to pursue her dreams of being an entrepreneur and has successfully grown the company in the last few years and she indicates she continues to grow as a leader every year.  Her perspective on why Finnish women have been successful in leadership is they come from a hard working culture and also cited the work culture and ethic that was necessary during the recent wars. 

Heidi also shared some very important views on building a team and the importance of the management team to have good self esteem.  Good self esteem results in leaders continuing to grow and challenge their teams and to hire employees who will one day potentially surpass themselves in their leadership journey.  Heidi shared her leadership journey as she balanced her newest member of the family (2 month old son) in her lap without ever missing a beat.  She definitely has the energy and passion required to keep the company growing. 





Tuesday September 11 - Helsinki

Technopolis sponsors over 50 business breakfasts each year as a means to bring together entrepreneurs, leaders and experts in a networking event.  CEO Keith Silverang began the concept and often supports by participating in the dialog, as he did today.

I had the opportunity to be the featured speaker to discuss the Eisenhower Fellowship and my leadership experiences.   Today’s session offered joint dialog with approximately 15 leaders on the topic of diversity.  This venue allowed me the opportunity to share my fellowship experiences to date and to learn more about diversity in Finland. 

One hot topic of discussion was quotas for board leadership.  EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding will propose decisive legislative action on gender quotas for corporate boards next month, after calls to take voluntary steps to increase women on boards to 40% by 2020 has failed to deliver tangible results.  Several countries in the Nordic region have already implemented a quota system (Norway for example), but to date, Finland has opposed.  The dialog provided pros and cons on the issue. 

Much of the discussion centered on the need to change mid-level and upper level mgmt positions to ensure there is a good pipeline of qualified leaders to fill the board. 

One question for further research is whether there is a link between more diverse boards and the age of the board members.  As a new generation moves into leadership is the composition becoming more diverse?

Next stop:  Heading to Oulu in northern Finland.

Monday September 10 - Helsinki

The first full day of meetings in Finland offered the opportunity to meet with leaders in both the public and private sector. 

I started my day with the Senior Inspector of the Gender Equality Unit, Annamari Asikainen.  She shared the basic framework that Finland has established for gender equality programs.  Finland has had a Corporate Governance Code in place since 2008.  There is now at least 1 female board member in 86% of companies, however the diversity varies quite a bit between size of company and type of industry.  Annamari’s perspective on what has enabled gender diversity is the government focus, company awareness and companys setting goals.   

Next I met with the leader of the Parliament Women’s Network and former Member of the European Parliament, Astrid Thors.  The current Parliament in Finland is comprised of over 40 percent women.  Astrid shared some of the history of how the women's network was started in the early 1990’s and how they continue to focus on relevant topics for discussion.  Some of the challenges that they are looking at today are the pay gap, women’s violence and other issues of equality.  Astrid’s perspective on the success in women in leadership in Finland is that much can be attributed to the long standing tradition in Finland that everyone is needed to contribute to the economic development of the country. 

In the private sector I had the opportunity to meet with Keith Silverang, CEO Technopolis Plc.  The company was formed in 1982 as the first Scandinavian technology park as a small business incubator in Oulu, Finland.  Eisenhower Fellow Pertti Huuskonen led the company for 20+ years.  The company has continued to grow and has now expanded internationally as well. Their current strategy is to expand nationally while keeping their core competency of service driven business.

Lastly I had the privilege of meeting with Sari Baldauf, Chairman of the Board, Fortum.  She shared open dialog regarding her leadership experience in HP, Nokia and now at Fortum.  She is a strong believer in having a corporate culture that focuses on diversity.  Three of the seven board members at Fortum are women and their board consists of international diversity as well.  Sari indicated that companys need to set clear strategy, targets and emphasize the business rationale associated with diversity. 

Some of her key messages were businesses need more pioneers, be energetic and find opportunities to make a difference.  

Parliament

Parliament Annex

Sunday September 9 - Helsinki

Arrival in Hanasaari Hanaholmen today - The Swedish Finnish Cultural Centre. What an appropriate first stop in Finland after two weeks spent in Sweden.  Hanasaari's mission is to promote cooperation between Finland and Sweden in culture, society and business.  The Centre here provides for hotel and conference facilities in a serene seaside setting.  The atmosphere certainly promotes reflection and study. 

I had the opportunity to have dinner with Gunvor Kronman, the Director of Hanasaari and her husband Henrik.  Gunvor is also an Eisenhower Fellow who traveled to the USA in 2007.  It was wonderful to be hosted by a previous fellow and enjoyed the leadership dialog.

Carol and Gunvor

Saturday September 8

My fellowship experience drew to a close here in Sweden today.  I had the opportunity to meet with leaders in multiple types of industry and in various areas of the country.  Several key themes have emerged as critical to continuing to expand women in leadership:

• Social Infrastructure (childcare, eldercare, maternity and paternity leave) Culture
• Role Models
• Networks
• Education (regarding opportunities and skill based training)
• Leaders setting expecations

Friday September 7 – Umeå

Today I was hosted in the city of Umeå for a full day of meetings.  Mr. Mats-Rune Bergström met myself and Anna Brozik at the airport to welcome us to the European Culture Capital of 2014. 

We began the day with the Vice-Chancellor of Umeå Univeristy, Ms. Lena Gustafsson.  The University is home to 36,000 students in 8 different schools.  Ms. Gustafsson shared her philosophy on research and development and the importance of long term thinking.  In fact, the university publication is titled just that – “Think, An Inquisitive Magazine from Umea University”.  In addition to the focus on innovation, the university is also focused on attracting more female professors.  Currently they have a mentoring program and a program in place attracting more female guest professors.  Dialog later in the day with other leaders at the university pointed to the fact that the students are looking for more female role models as professors and guest lecturers.

Umeå Art Campus

The next portion of the day was spent touring the Art Campus which includes the Umeå Institute for Design and the Umeå School of Architecture.  The focus was on design and innovation.  We met with several leaders taking the Institute in new directions.  Friday marked the end of the first week of school for new students.  Pictured below are several projects that teams of students built during the first week to demonstrate several design principles.  The focus on innovation and team work was evident as we watched the teams interact.  The School of Architecture was in the process of finalizing a Kinetic Machine which will be demonstrated to the Dean early next week. 

Umeå European Culture Capital of 2014

Ms. Marie-Louise Rönnmark, Chairman of the Municipal Council and Mr. Jan Björinge, CEO of the Umeå Municipality led a discussion on the cities’ path to the European Culture Capital of 2014.  We also discussed how the city of Umeå was the first city in Sweden to have child care for everyone and the first to offer adult education courses.  Marie-Louise’s perspective on why Sweden, and Umeå in particular, are seeing more women in leadership is the result of women are highly educated, a great social system is in place and the emphasis that gender diversity leads to good results for the economy. 

The city is currently focused on achieving the designation of European Culture Capital of 2014.  The campaign focuses on creating curiosity across the entire community and that culture stimulates curiosity.  Curiosity and innovation are in evidence across the city. 

Ms. Maud Olofsson

I then had the pleasure to dialog with Ms. Maud Olofsson, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Enterprise and Energy.  Ms. Olofsson is also a member of Hillary Clinton’s International Council of Women Business Leadership and leader of the subteam focused on leadership.  Maud joined my visit for the majority of the day, emphasizing the importance networking and having established role models.  Maud has been at the forefront of women in leadership in all of her positions she has held.  In 2006 she started an education and training program for women on boards.  She is also the initiator of a program still in place aligning 200 women in a networking program.  Maud emphasized that results can happen, but it requires setting targets, measuring and holding leaders accountable to achieve. 

The International Council of Women Business Leadership subteam that Maud chairs is close to presenting final recommendations to the chair.  There are 4 key areas that the subteam found were critical for promoting more women leaders:  role models, mentoring, training and access to networks.  These ideas have emerged as common themes in the course of the last two weeks of my project focus.  In addition, Maud focused quite a bit on the need for industry and leaders to create work-life balance, which will continue to aid in the growth of women as leaders.

Dinner – Governor’s Residence, Province of Våsterbotten

Ms. Birgitta Heijer, Acting Governor of the Province of Våsterbotten, hosted dinner at the residence for the team of leaders who participated in my visit today.  It was wonderful to continue to the dialog from each of my meetings during a fabulous dinner.  This dinner was the culmination of my two week fellowship visit in Sweden and I couldn’t think of a better way to end the visit.  I was warmly welcomed and enjoyed the candid dialog by all related to my project goals, as well as leadership and where the town of Umeå is headed.

Umeå leaders were fabulous hosts, and they certainly put Umeå on the map for me. 

Thursday September 6 – Stockholm

Cultural Day in Stockholm

Gamlastan

City Hall

View from City Hall

Vassa Museum

Dinner tonight was hosted by Governor Peter Egardt, Eisenhower Fellow, 1989 and his wife Lena in Uppsala Castle.

Wednesday September 5 – Stockholm

Today I met with Anna Ekström, Director-General for The Swedish National Agency for Education in Stockholm.  This meeting provided me the opportunity to learn more about the education system in Sweden and what programs are in place related to gender equality.  In addition, Anna shared her experiences in the various leadership positions that she has held in her career.  Anna shared that nearly 100% of students now attend secondary school and a larger percentage (60%) of that population is women. 

Anna indicated that education has been a key tool in Sweden leading the way in women in leadership positions.  There are also several programs in place aimed to increase the interest in science and engineering fields.  One such program is a several week summer camp offered in partnership between universities and industry at technology colleges.  The camp is designed to increase the interest in technical fields. 

Tuesday - September 4 - Kiruna - Esrange

Tuesday September 4 – Kiruna



Ann-Helen, Jonny, Ann-Christin, me



Today provided a further look at the various industry that is present in Kiruna with a trip further north to SSC’s Esrange Space Center.  Esrange is a rocket launch site, balloon launch site, a unique test range and comprehensive service facility for scientists and commercial industry.  The staff at the range provided an insiders’ look at the facility and shared some of the unique advantages that working above the arctic circle provide, but also some of the challenges, including continuing to attract talent and working with the city to ensure housing and infrastructure are available as people move to work for the company.

SSC is active in university outreach including sponsoring a rocket and balloon launch competition.  They are also involved in several programs with the local high schools. 

At the end of our visit I was presented with an Arctic Circle Certificate.

Monday - September 3 - KIRUNA

Monday September 3 – Kiruna

Kiruna Municipality

Kiruna – A significant portion of the city will be moved due to the shifting ground from the LKAB mine.  This presents many unique challenges for the municipality as well as LKAB.  Some of the significant buildings impacted by the impending move are the City Hall, the 100 year old LKAB hotel and the Kiruna church (pictured below).  The church will be moved in several pieces to a new site, however the other 2 buildings referenced will be torn down. 

In discussions with Ann-Catrin Fredriksson, she shared information regarding the town’s city plan and city transformation currently underway for Kiruna.  When Kiruna was originally designed, it was designed as a role model town by city planner Per-Olov Hallman.  LKAB’s first managing director Hjalmar Lundbohm hired the planner to ensure that Kiruna would be a model community.  The The original town of Kiruna included investments in schools, a town plan laid out around topography, and the first daycare in Sweden.  The current design competition is looking for the winning design to be just as innovative as Per-Olov Hallman was in the 1900’s. 

I had the opportunity to met with Mayor Kristina Zakrisson and discuss the challenges she is facing for the town of Kiruna as well as her experiences as a leader.  She has been the mayor of Kiruna for the last 2 years and prior to that a Parliament leader for 16 years.  She is the first female mayor for the town of Kiruna.   With Kiruna’s history as male dominated mining town and women weren’t allowed to work underground until 1979, Kiruna has come a long way.  Kristina believes that the young women of the town need to see women as leaders and role models.  The town has incorporated a look at gender into the 4 year town plan.  

There are three significant industries in Kiruna and I had the opportunity to visit all three:  LKAB mine, tourism (The ICEHOTEL) and Esrange. 

LKAB Mine

Stina, Carol, Marina

We received an extensive tour of the LKAB mine, including a visit to the underground Visitor’s Center, Level 775 of the mine and the production facilities.  The company is the only iron ore mine that mines below the surface.  They have perfected the technology to mine the ore into pellets making the product safer for the environment.  We had the opportunity to meet with one of the production managers, Stina Klemo. Stina is one of several family members who all work at the mine.  She indicated this is quite common in Kiruna.  Stina got her degree in Rock Engineering and is one of several female managers now working below ground.  LKAB has several programs in place where they are working with the local universities to continue to attract talent such as Stina’s to the mine industry. 

Later in the evening we were hosted for dinner by Ann-Christine Lindgren, one of the leaders in LKAB.  We shared excellent dialog on leadership and women in leadership in what used to be a predominantly male industry. 

The ICEHOTEL

Tourism is another major industry in the town of Kiruna.  We were greeted by CEO, Monica Wollmén, who provided a tour of the facility and shared her leadership journey.  She shared her thoughts on how the team continues to keep the idea fresh after 22 years of building a new ICEHOTEL each winter.  The hotel is situated in Jukkasjärvi on the Torne River.  This location has turned out to be key in the concept, as the water from the Torne river is the clearest at the location that they’ve built on and continue to host ice production.  The ice production facility produces the ice for the company’s hotel as well as all of the production for the ICEBARS around the world.  This concept involves a key distribution process as well.  Monica’s leadership message was to continue to grow and empower your team. 

Sunday September 2 - Kiruna

We were welcomed to Kiruna by our wonderful host, Marina Källvik, a guide from the LKAB mine.  Marina greeted us at the airport and introduced us to the city of Kiruna by hosting us for dinner at Camp Ripan.  She then transported us to the LKAB company hotel, Bolagshotellet, which has been in use by the company for the last 100 years as the company hotel, meeting center and gathering place.  The building contains numerous pieces of local artwork and is rich with history. Unfortunately with the town move (more to follow) this beautiful building will be torn down.  

Saturday September 1 – Weekend in Copenhagen

We spent the weekend in Copenhagen experiencing the cultural traditions of Denmark.  Also had the opportunity to experience the SJ train system (a bit of a delay on the track) and crossed the Øresund Bridge from Malmö to Copenhagen. 

Copenhagen provided a quick glimpse of Denmark via a walking tour including landmarks such as, Town Hall, The Copenhagen Cathedral, Rosenborg Castle and King’s Gardens, The Marble Church, and The Little Mermaid.  We ended the day enjoying the experience of Tivoli Gardens.

Today we are off to Kiruna, Sweden to begin 2 days in Swedish Lapland in the far northern region of Sweden.

Copenhagen Harbo

Friday August 31 – Copenhagen

On the high speed train to Copenhagen.  Today will provide a glimpse into the southern countryside of Sweden as we make our way from Stockholm, passing through Norrköping, Linköping, and Malmö, with final arrival in Copenhagen, Denmark for a weekend of yet another cultural experience. 

Thursday August 30 – Uppsala / Stockholm

Today’s full day of programming began with a trip to Uppsala to return to the Uppsala Science Park and to the University of Uppsala. 

I had the pleasure to meet with Eva Åkesson, Vice Chancellor of Uppsala University.  Eva is the 19th Vice Chancellor to take over leadership of the University, and the first female.  Eva assumed this role in January, leaving her previous position as Vice Chancellor of Lund University.  We met in the Rektor’s office, where Eva is reminded of the leadership of those who have come before her with portraits on the wall, but she is just as interested in looking forward and urging renewal.  This is in part evidenced by her use of social media, such as Twitter, and a blog to keep touch.    Currently 22% of Uppsala University’s full professors are female and the university continues to work towards increasing this percentage.  The University is active in mentoring and ensuring role models are in place.

I spent the next several hours at the Uppsala Science Park interacting with several companies who are working innovation.  I had the opportunity to meet with Christina Frimodig, CEO of STUNS, which is a cooperation between businesses and the university.  The goal of STUNS is to provide a linkage between the research area and private funding to continue innovation with a focus on projects with scalability and transferability.  She also shared her experiences participating on several boards and working for Pharmacia. 

I next had the opportunity to meet the CEO’s of Angstrom Aerospace Corporation (Kjell Bohlin) and IMINT (Harald Klomp).  They shared their passion for technology and how their companies have evolved. 

In the afternoon I met with Ann-Louis Mänsson, Head of the International Department at the Swedish Parliament (Sveriges Riksdag).  Ann-Louise shared her perspectives on leadership and her experience working for both the public and private sector in Sweden.  When asked what she believed were contributors to the success that Sweden has had in promoting gender diversity, she indicated that a long history of social obligation and liberal parental leave were contributors.  She has also seen increases over time of both genders utilizing the provided parental leave. 

Media has also contributed to gender equality.  One specific example was an ad of a famous wrestler holding a baby with the title “Daddy’s Leave”.  This ad was designed to continue to promote the use of at least one month of paternal leave following the birth of a baby. 

 Ann-Louise shared that the public sector has moved faster than the more conservative private sector in terms of achieving gender equality and there is still room for improvement within Sweden in terms of equal pay and continued representation of women on boards.  

Wednesday August 29 – Stockholm –Saab

I was welcomed by Saab today to learn about their product line and company, as well as to exchange dialog with several leading women in business in Sweden.  I had the opportunity to meet with Lena Olving, Deputy CEO & Chief Operating Officer, Gunilla Fransson, Senior Vice President, Security and Defence Solutions,  Security and Communication Division and Annika Bäremo, Senior VP and General Counsel.  Each of these leaders took the time to share their leadership journey, challenges and plans for the future.  Saab is leading the way for change in many areas.