During my career I have been able to work in varied tasks in the museum sector, also in very different kinds of museums. My own museum sector ‘vocational college’ was Hanko Museum, where I went to make an inventory of town buildings while still a university student in the mid-1980s. In a small museum with few employees, one had to do all kinds of things from writing articles, editing publications and printing to planning exhibitions and cutting mounts. My next place, Espoo City Museum, was significantly larger and the tasks more specialised. Espoo was an excellent springboard to Helsinki and the Cultural Environment Unit, where it was particularly wonderful to be able to share thoughts and experiences with colleagues performing the same work.

Prior to my present post as museum director, I was a buildings researcher and head of the cultural environment unit. Work as a specialist in cultural environment was fascinatingly diverse and inspiring, but in the 1990s I was already involved in the management team and in developing the entire museum through my role as head of unit. My predecessor as museum director, Leena Arkio-Laine, is to be thanked for her encouragement and for pushing me onto the leadership path. With the support of my employer, I was able to participate in such things as training for Nordic museum directors. In this respect, the city of Helsinki has been an excellent employer; educational opportunities have always been on offer. Over the last two years I have had the chance to complete an Executive MBA, tailored for the City, at Aalto University. It has opened up entirely new perspectives and understanding for a director like me with a degree in the humanities.