Professor Yrjö Blomstedt’s advice to his young colleagues was that work rests upon other work. So it is that both within the University and beyond I have constantly taken up positions of trust, which I have neither been able nor wanted to turn down.  The jobs I have embarked on have to be properly and responsibly dealt with, but making use of efficient teamwork.

I have been through practically every academic administrative task from those of the assistant to professor, the head of department to dean of faculty, rector to chancellor. In working groups I have laid the ground for the Kristiina Institute, the University’s vision, funding models, research evaluation and the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (in humanities and social studies). I have worked over a period of forty years as chair of the Philosophical Society of Finland, and fifteen years as chair of the Tieteellisten Seurain Valtuuskunta-the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. In those same fifteen years I have been on the board of the Fédération International des Sociétés Philosophique-International Society for the Philosophical Societies, which convenes its meetings all around the world.

The most important positions of trust outside of the University have been the Academy of Finland humanities division in the 1970s and chairing the board of the Finnish Cultural Foundation in the early 1990s. At the time of the deep recession of 1993 I prepared with a working group a citizens’ contribution to Finland’s spiritual state and prospects.

Extensive experience in cultural, administrative and economic fields have been furnished by administrative tasks in the Finnish National Theatre, the Finnish division of the European Cultural Foundation and the Albert Edelfelt Foundation. This networking has been useful in a number of ways: as rector and chancellor I have had a part to play in the University’s societal impact.