Press Release: Board of Aalto University Foundation Appoints Matti Alahuhta as Chair and Marja Makarow as Vice Chair

Aalto University 15 August 2008

The seven-member board of the Aalto University Foundation formed by the Helsinki School of Economics, University of Art and Design Helsinki and Helsinki University of Technology, appointed on 14 August 2008, has appointed a Chair and Vice Chair from among its members. In the inaugural meeting, President of Kone Oyj, Matti Alahuhta (D.Sc. in eng.) and Professor Marja Makarow, CEO of the European Science Foundation ESF were appointed Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

The other five members of the board are President of Boston University Robert A. Brown, President and CEO Anne Brunila, Professor Bengt Holmström, Professor Saku Mantere and Senior Design Manager Anna Valtonen. All board members hold a doctorate.

From left to right: Bengt Holmström, Anne Brunila, Marja Makarow, Robert A. Brown, Anna Valtonen, Saku Mantere and Matti Alahuhta.

‘I very much appreciate this opportunity to lead such an excellent team of experts who perfectly complement each other. We have all accepted this challenge of establishing a brand new university with great enthusiasm. In the long run, Aalto University has the potential to make a great difference and thus contribute to Finland’s success in the future’, Chair Matti Alahuhta concludes.

In Alahuhta’s view, safeguarding the future success of Aalto University requires enhancing the quality of research and education in the new scientific community to be formed by TKK, TaiK and HSE; in this, developing a better working environment for researchers, teachers and students plays a key role. The goal is to create a student-centred culture that encourages people to learn new things and broaden their perspectives continuously. Furthermore, research and related resources need to be enhanced, while putting increasing weight on involvement in new Finnish and international cooperation networks.

’Today, the board will also launch an international recruitment process to find a rector for the new university. Our aim is to appoint the new rector as early as in October or November to enable him or her to start managing the upcoming transformation as soon as possible’, Alahuhta adds.

For additional information, please contact Project Director Jari Jokinen, Ministry of Education, tel. +358 400 914 839.