Who we are

Ville Aarnio is a philosopher, investor, and forest owner who chairs Talousvihreät (the Economy Greens) and is also active in Maaseutu- ja erävihreät (the Rural and Outdoor Greens) and serves as a Green party council member. Academically, he specializes in the foundations of economic and social theory, such as game theory and decision theory. In politics, Aarnio seeks to reconcile different interests, such as economic value creation and nature conservation. His particular areas of expertise are capital taxation and forestry.

Sofia Alainen is a student of information technology engineering (M.Sc. Eng. track), deputy chair of the board of the Student Union of the University of Turku, and a member of the federal board of the Green Youth and Students. She comes from a multi-generational family farm in South Ostrobothnia and is the first in her farming family to attend higher education.

At the heart of her politics is the idea of a Finland where your starting point does not determine your future — only a person’s own ability, ambition, and dreams do. Supporting market economy is a way to achieve that.

Ester Dufva is a Helsinki-based entrepreneur, translator, and active Green Party member. For her, the cornerstones of politics are nature conservation and social justice. On this foundation, a fair, civilized, and prosperous society can be built — one that encourages people toward entrepreneurship and active engagement in both small and large matters. M.A., B.Sc.

Kalle Euro is a champion of architecture, sustainable urban development, and the market economy, who joined the Greens because he felt the party combines faith in the future, civilization, internationalism, and the defense of human rights. After a long history with the National Coalition Party, what proved decisive was the sense that in the Greens, market-driven economic thinking, modern urban policy, and an open society can go hand in hand.

Atte Harjanne is a Member of Parliament, city councillor, M.Sc. in Engineering, climate change researcher, and reserve captain from Helsinki. In politics, Harjanne focuses on energy, security, technology, and the economy, as well as promoting fair competition and healthy markets.

Joel Himanen is a data scientist and software developer (M.Sc. Eng., Aalto University), driven by a desire to solve society’s most intractable problems through business. Himanen believes that the combination of the welfare state, healthy markets, and market- and business-friendly regulation is the key to fitting our economic system within our planet’s carrying capacity. In his ideal society, market forces are harnessed to link profitable business with solving humanity’s most serious challenges — making the world better pays off!

Taavi Horila is an integration architect, holds a Master of Social Sciences degree, chairs the Seinäjoki Greens (Seinäjoen Vihreät ry.), and is a member of the Green League’s party council. For him, the most important goal of politics is keeping the planet habitable, and Horila wants to do his part toward that. The market economy is the best possible way to allocate resources fairly. With the right boundary conditions and by pricing externalities, the market economy is also a fair way for everyone to solve the climate and nature crisis.

Timo Huhta is an M.Sc. in Energy Engineering, a construction management consultant, a doctoral researcher, and a deputy councillor from Vantaa. Huhta’s goal is to build a financially sustainable and just welfare state, which includes sustainable growth and urban development, successful businesses, vibrant and pleasant neighborhoods, and investment in the wellbeing of children and young people. His political themes especially include land and housing policy, urban development, and energy and climate policy.

Anna Jaakola is a specialist in gynecology and obstetrics, an entrepreneur, and the mother of a young son, from Pyhtää. She values politics that puts the wellbeing of future generations ahead of short-sighted self-interest, and that sees humanity, empathy, and civilization as strengths of society. Anna believes a thriving economy is built on a stable society, education, research, and respect for nature’s carrying capacity. In politics, she is motivated especially by the wellbeing of children and young people, nature conservation, humanity and social justice, science-based decision-making, and a forward-looking, responsible market economy.

Ville-Veikko Karttunen is a CFO, investor, and active Green Party member. As a father of two, Ville-Veikko considers it absolutely essential that politics be made with a long-term view, on the terms of generations to come rather than those on their way out. The climate crisis is the interest nature charges us after a long-running payday-loan spiral. Now is the time to pay down the principal, not keep living on debt — otherwise, enforced debt collection will cost every one of us our home.

Samuli “Sako” Koivulahti is a sole entrepreneur from Turku, a creative-industry professional, and a father of three. He brings straight talk and the everyday realism of a sole trader — including from the creative sector — into green politics. For Sako, it is clear that the welfare state can only be saved through work and entrepreneurship, but not at the expense of nature or future generations.

In politics, Sako fights for a fair market economy and especially for the standing of sole traders and small business owners. He wants to dismantle the bureaucratic contraptions that hold back entrepreneurship, such as the unjust YEL pension system, and to cut competition-distorting corporate subsidies. The Greens are a natural home for Sako, because the party is able to combine economic realism with intergenerational responsibility, without the entrenched special-interest politicking of the traditional right-wing parties.

Tero Koskinen works as a preparedness manager at a rescue department and wellbeing services county. Koskinen’s special expertise lies in preparedness and contingency planning for businesses, social and health services, and rescue departments. His key themes are security, nature and the environment, and an active lifestyle.

Jaakko Kyrö is a father from Mäntsälä, a software developer, and a folk musician. Alongside his day job, his time is spent in municipal politics as a deputy member of the Mäntsälä Municipal Council and a member of the Technical Committee, as well as in the cultural sphere promoting Finnish folk music. The Greens became Jaakko’s party primarily because of its market-friendliness, its lack of special-interest politicking, and its evidence-based approach to policy.

Tuuli Kousa is a Helsinki city councillor, a member of the City Board, a lawyer, and an entrepreneur. Tuuli has extensive experience in corporate leadership roles in communications, responsibility, and public affairs. In politics, she has previously served as chair of the Helsinki City Council, as special adviser to Minister of Development Cooperation and Ownership Steering Pekka Haavisto, and as chair of the Greens’ economic policy working group.

The cornerstones of Tuuli’s politics are a responsible market economy, equality, education, culture, and biodiversity. On this foundation, a civilized, prosperous, and socially just society can be built — one where everyone has prospects and that encourages people to act, dare, and try.

Arttu Laitinen is a father of two, a technology and sales professional (M.Sc. Eng., University of Turku), and an active reserve officer. Arttu champions a market-driven, energy self-sufficient Finland that invests in education, putting resources into children, young people, and the future rather than pensioners. Arttu serves as a deputy member of the Turku City Council, deputy chair of the Green council group in Turku, and a member of the Turku Children’s and Youth Services Committee.

Lauri Lavanti is a Kirkkonummi municipal councillor, chair of his council group, and a lead software developer at a bank. He graduated as an M.Sc. in Engineering from Aalto University and has four children. Lauri’s father served for many years as a National Coalition Party municipal councillor in Kirkkonummi. Lauri’s goal is a digitally independent Finland, where the economy, civilization, and freedom work together in the age of artificial intelligence.

Onni-Jonatan Matilainen is a deputy city councillor from Oulu, a deputy member of the party council, and a master’s student in economics. His key political themes include, among others, sustainable development, climate policy, industrial policy, and reformist social policy.

Kalle Matsinen is a restaurateur and humanist from Tampere. Important themes for Matsinen include a fair and functioning market economy, sustainable transport and urban planning, minority inclusion in politics, and the realization of rights.

Johanna Muurinen is a researcher, docent, and agronomist from Sipoo, and a novice municipal politician who entered politics to help ensure that decisions are based on research evidence. On the Sipoo Municipal Council, she is 1st deputy councillor, a member of the Building and Environment Committee, a deputy member of the Municipal Executive Board, and the Executive Board’s representative on the board of the Sipoo Vesi water utility. Johanna is originally from Porvoo and has also lived in the United States, where she saw up close where value-conservative, science-dismissive politics leads. Professionally, Johanna researches humanity’s existential questions, and her political goal is to steer decisions so that the world becomes a better place for future generations.

Lauri Nevanperä is a lead AI engineer, a Tampere city councillor, a member of the Urban Environment Committee, and a Pirkanmaa regional councillor. His core areas are the economy, technology, transport, and urban planning. Lauri believes the market mechanism is the most efficient known way to allocate resources, but that the market economy is not a moral force. That is why we need both free markets and a strong social safety net. A strong economy, a warm heart.

Olli-Pekka Paasivirta is a Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration and a deputy city councillor from Espoo. He has worked as an economist both in the private sector and in the public sector. He believes the market economy is the best tool for solving our era’s great problems, and that among Finland’s parties, the Greens understand this best of all.

Vilju is an upper secondary school student heading into his final year, as well as a law student at the Open University. He serves as economic policy officer on the federal board of the Green Youth and Students, and in the Greens’ foreign and security policy expert working group. At the core of Vilju’s economic philosophy are a sustainable economy, solid comprehensive security, and investment in education as its foundation. Universal basic income, equality, and benefit/harm-based taxation are the keys to a liberated life.

Ilari Putkonen is an economist, lead IT specialist, and municipal politician from Tampere. In politics, Putkonen is especially interested in promoting a fair market economy, creating the conditions for economic growth, and upholding intergenerational justice. Tolerance, the indivisible dignity of every human being, and safeguarding nature’s carrying capacity form the value base for Putkonen’s political work.

Juho is a management researcher, advisor, and speaker who does satire and stand-up about the most absurd phenomena in working life. In his view, Finnish management and politics suffer from the same afflictions: a visionless inability to reform, short-sighted self-interest, and a gap between words and deeds. Market Greens dismantle the corporate subsidies that hold back reform, put an end to environmentally destructive free-riding, and put a price on externalities that ties actions to words. This is how sustainable markets for green growth and new frontiers are created.

Susanna Sankala is a lifelong-learning specialist at the doctoral school of LUT University (M.Soc.Sc.), an education-sector entrepreneur, and a speaker from Turku. Susanna’s main campaign themes are education, security, and the future. She is especially active in networks around artificial intelligence, technology, and entrepreneurship. She chairs the Greens’ expert working group on education policy and chairs the Turku Region Green Women.

Susanna Sielo is an Espoo city councillor, a market-green finance enthusiast, a strategy-specialized economist, and a rational voice in politics. Professionally, she consults companies on questions of technology and artificial intelligence. In Espoo, Susanna serves, among other things, on the Business and Entrepreneurship Steering Group, and promotes the conditions for growth companies and entrepreneurship education for all young people. Raising the level of education, advancing equality, and preventing youth exclusion are important themes for Susanna, and she has also gotten these goals through in the council. As a former National Coalition Party voter, Susanna switched to the Greens when the Coalition no longer matched her vision of evidence-based, reformist, resource-wise politics. Susanna would rather build politics that combines a renewing economy, the recovery of nature, and a free, civilized society. Susanna’s heart isn’t on the right — it’s warm, empathetic, and green.

Osmo Soininvaara is a nonfiction author and a retiree from politics.

Mikko Särelä holds a doctorate in communications engineering from Aalto University, is the founder of the “More City” (Lisää kaupunkia) movement, and was previously active in Helsinki municipal politics. Mikko also chaired the Greens’ urban policy working group in 2022–2023. Over his career, Mikko has worked at a startup, a university, a large international corporation, and in the NGO sector. Markets are an excellent tool for producing wellbeing, allocating scarce resources, and reducing environmental harm. Emissions trading is the best method yet devised for cutting emissions.

Samuel Tammekann is the acting executive director of Eurooppalainen Suomi ry (European Finland), a special adviser, and a student of social history. Having previously served as 2nd deputy chair of the National Coalition Youth and, since moving to the Greens, been closely involved in numerous campaigns, Tammekann wants to help build an open society and an eco-social market economy resilient to this century’s pressures — one where individual freedom, justice, and ecological carrying capacity go hand in hand. He is particularly interested in the resilience of pluralist democracy in an age of technological disruption and overlapping crises.

Eeva Ylikoski is studying to become a primary school teacher at the University of Eastern Finland. She serves on the student union board in the social policy portfolio and as deputy chair of the board of the Green Youth and Students of Savo-Karjala. Eeva also sits on the Joensuu Council for Persons with Disabilities. She values politics that helps and supports those with the least, in particular. Nature organizations are also important to Eeva, and it is where she began her own political career. She is involved with the Greens because nature and animals are especially close to her heart. She also believes a strong state helps those who are weaker to cope and stay included in society.

I’m Ulla Santti, an RDI specialist and project manager in bio- and circular economy research at Savonia University of Applied Sciences. In my work I build solutions that strengthen our region’s vitality, sustainable growth, and new jobs. In my free time I’m working on my doctoral thesis and enjoy playing badminton. I believe wellbeing comes from balancing work, family, and everyday life.

I want to build a safer, more vibrant Savo-Karelia, where people get timely access to care, local services are preserved, and people get help when they need it. Bio- and circular economy, entrepreneurship, and innovation can bring our region work and hope for the future. At the same time, we must take care of clean waters, nature, and domestic security of supply.