CFA Society Finland celebrated its 20th Anniversary at Ritarihuone
What an amazing and festive night we had on 9th June as we celebrated our Society’s 20th Anniversary at Ritarihuone in Helsinki. Ritarihuone offered a marvellous setting for a night like this as we celebrated the Society history with wonderful speeches, video messages, dinner, music and more.
Our board president Antti Raappana, CFA acted as the host for the evening and welcomed everyone to the event with our guest speaker Pieter van Putten, CFA. Pieter has been acting as the EMEA area President’s Council representative for the past two years and has now been elected as the new vice president of the President’s Council at CFA Institute. Next we were greeted by Kaisa Paatsola, on behalf of our our annual sponsor Fidelity International. Kaisa’s greeting was followed by a video by Paul Moody, Managing Director, Global Partnerships & Client Solutions, at CFA Institute.
An important part of the evening was to recap the history of the Society with the Society leaders that have been part of creating and growing this community. Since not all of the past Society presidents could not be present at our event, we were fortunate to be able to offer video greeting from some of the Society Chairs. Kati Eriksson, CFA, (chair 2013-2016) Tommi Kokkarinen, CFA (chair 2003-2005) and Miia Hukari, CFA (chair 2018-2020) sent their hellos with a video message covering the highlights from their respective Society presidencies.
Jaap van Dam
As our keynote speaker for the evening, we welcomed Jaap van Dam, Principal Director, Investment Strategy, PGGM. Mr. van Dam spoke on the future of finance theme; what have been the grand economic tendencies and investment philosophies during the past 20 years and what are the future outlooks for investment management and investors. As we are currently experiencing political and economic turmoil like never before, Jaap’s speech was well appreciated and gave us food for thought on how to steer ourselves best for the changing financial landscape and demands from outside stakeholders and the society at large.
During our celebrations, CFA Society Finland was happy to remember the new charterholders in our area. Mr. van Putten gave a speech on the importance of continuous learning which was well suited for the occasion. Joining us for the Charter Ceremony at Ritarihuone were Oskari Jaakkola, CFA, Outi Kreus, CFA and Wilhelm Stjernvall, CFA. Other new charterholders are William Aussili. CFA and Thomas Becker, CFA. Congratulations to all!
From left: Antti Raappana, Wilhelm Stjernvall, Outi Kreus, Oskari Jaakkola and Pieter van Putten.
After the main course was turn for the Society founding president Mr. Ben Wolfram, CFA. Ben delivered a heartwarming and witty speech on the makings of the CFA Society Finland, what it means to be a charterholder and being part of this community spiced up by comments on the present state of the world.
Ben’s speech was followed by a fireside chat by a lineup of CFA Society Finland’s past presidents. We were excited to welcome Laura Männistö, CFA, Mikko Niskanen, CFA, Billyana Kuncheva, CFA, Ville Toivakainen, CFA and Matias Möttölä, CFA to the stage. It was wonderful to hear their thoughts looking back at the years and what have been the pivotal moments during their leadership time.
For the end of the evening’s program we were happy to welcome a professional handpan musician, Iiro Kontio. Iiro played us a mesmerizing performance with an instrument that most likely was a new experience to many. Event’s music was otherwise provided to us by dj Janne Mäkinen.
Thank you to everyone attending our evening, members and guests. You made this a truly memorable event which gives us motivation to make the best of the 20 years ahead!