The new University Board of the University of Turku selected Ritva Viljanen as their Chair. Tuuli Kaskinen was selected as Vice Chair.
The University Board that started its term on 1 January 2022 has selected Mayor of Vantaa Ritva Viljanen as their Chair in the first board meeting on 21 January 2022.
Viljanen was also the Chair of the previous University Board from 19 January 2018 to 31 December 2021. She has been a member of the Board since 2014. Before her mayorship, Viljanen has held several positions in public administration. She has worked as the Deputy Mayor of Education at the City of Helsinki, the Director-General of the Population Register Centre, and has worked in several positions in different ministries, such as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior. She is an alumna of the University of Turku.
— The new Board of the University of Turku will continue to develop the University as a multidisciplinary and internationally top-level institution. It is an honour to be part of this work, says Viljanen.
The last two years have been shadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, but Viljanen thinks it is important that the University returns to normal operations as soon as possible.
The Chair and Vice Chair of the Board are elected from among the members of the Board who come from outside the University.
The University Board consists of ten members. In addition to Viljanen, members of the Board who come from outside the University include Tuuli Kaskinen, who was recently selected as CEO of Climate Leadership Coalition, Ilkka Salmi, who is the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator of the Council of the European Union, and Leif Schulman, the Director General of the Finnish Environment Institute.
The members of the Board from the University community are Professor Suvi Salmenniemi, Professor Pekka Vallittu, Chief Information Security Officer Mats Kommonen, University Lecturer Elina Pelto, and students Joni Järvinen and Maria Nieminen. The student members’ term is two years and the term of the other members is four years.
The University Board is the University’s highest executive organ. According to the Universities Act, the Board decides on the most central objectives of the University’s operations and finances, strategy, and management principles.