Esko Aho — Prime Minister of Finland (1991–1995); Senior Adviser, East Office of Finnish Industries
Born 1954, M.Sc. (Soc.Sc.).
In April 2013 Mr. Aho was appointed as an Executive Chairman of East Office of Finnish Industries representing the leading Finnish corporations in Russia. He was also appointed to head the Business Team for Russia – the cooperation venture of the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce, East Office and the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK’s Russia functions.
Mr. Aho enjoyed a long and distinguished career in government service. He served as a member of Finnish parliament for 20 years, from 1983. He was elected to the Prime Minister’s Office in 1991 at the age of 36, making him the youngest prime minister in Finland’s history. During his premiership, Mr. Aho chaired the Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland. Under his leadership, he also brought Finland into the European Union.
After leaving office in 1995, Mr. Aho spent one year as a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University in 2000. He then served as the president of Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, from 2004-2008.
Currently Mr. Aho serves as elected member of the Executive Board at the International Chamber of Commerce. He is also an invited member of Club de Madrid, an independent organization of former heads of state and government dedicated to strengthening democracy. Since founded in 2010, Mr. Aho has been a board member at Skolkovo Foundation, a non-profit organization charged with creating a new science and technology development centre in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo. In May 2016 Mr. Aho was elected to the Supervisory Board of Sberbank.
In March 2015, he was named as Executive in Residence at Aalto University, where he works at the Department of Management Studies at the School of Business. Mr. Aho holds honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Vaasa, Finland, and the University of Alberta, Canada.
