As a youth growing up in southern Lapland, I quickly realised that after upper-secondary school I would go as far away as possible to study. Studying abroad was not as common at that time, so the natural choice was Finland’s southernmost, largest and most fascinating university: the University of Helsinki.

I began by studying general history, but soon after I chose politics and economics from the Faculty of Social Sciences to complement my major subject and satisfy my interest. I wrote my master’s thesis on European integration and I completed a study programme on the European Union at the University of Turku. After graduating as a Master of Arts, my choice of subjects helped me find work at the Finnish Chambers of Commerce, despite the poor economic situation.

At the beginning of the 2000s, I took a sabbatical from the Chambers of Commerce and completed an MBA at the Helsinki School of Economics. The pace of study was extremely fast, and we studied late into the night. The teaching was nevertheless of high quality, and at the same time I learnt some key working methods.