Contact
Finland Center Foundation
@ Centre for Social Innovation
601 West 26th St. #325-102
New York, NY 10001
USA
Tel. No.: 1-646-704-8000
E-mail: info@finlandcenter.org
Board of Directors:
Born in Finland and relocated to New York 50 years ago, Eija has always kept her connection to her home country. Despite having been widowed at a young age and left to raise three children (and now busy with seven grandchildren), Eija kept her connection to Finland through literature, music, and being active in Finnish organizations in New York. With Eija's background as an experienced bookkeeper, FCF was very lucky when she agreed to join our Board as treasurer.
Eija Bucciarelli
Meeri Koskialho
Originally from Espoo, Finland, where she studied business and marketing. She has worked in risk management and the music and fashion industries. A life-time animal and human rights activist, she began globe-trotting at an early age. She met Jaana Rehnström, founder of The Kota Alliance, soon after moving to New York City and became part of the original Kota task force. Meeri currently manages a women’s clothing boutique in Midtown Manhattan. She enjoys traveling, especially around the Mekong river and the Himalayas.
Johanna Pentikäinen is a writer, researcher, teacher and text book editor currently being a visiting scholar at Teachers’ College, Columbia University. Her specialities are writing and literature education as well as Finnish language and culture, and she is a true lover of narrative and visual arts. She comes from Helsinki, Finland, where she was a university lecturer at University of Helsinki for years besides her other other teaching and writing duties. As a writer and educator, she is deeply committed to humanistic values in all her work. In Finland she volunteers in Naisten Pankki (Women’s Bank) network — by editing literary cookbooks for fundraising.
Johanna Pentikäinen
Jaana Rehnström
A physician (gynecologist) recently retired from private practice. She has been a lifelong human rights activist and since her move to New York 30+ years ago, became interested in promoting Finnish culture and values. She has served on the Boards of several Finnish expatriate organizations in New York and is now also on the Board of The Kota Alliance, a new NYC organization dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment (an offshoot of FCF). In her free time she enjoys music in all its forms, reading, cooking, gardening, socializing with friends and family, and travel.
Thomas Riggs
Thomas Riggs has known Finns his whole life and has visited the country several times in the past (and is due to re visit!) His first good friend was Finnish and his friend’s father was a diplomat at the UN. He grew up with Finnish-Americans in Gloucester, Massachusetts as his family is from there and he summered there till my mid 20s. There he was introduced to Finnish foods and sauna. He has previously worked for the Finnish American Chamber of Commerce in New York. His involvement in the Finland Center has been for 13 years and has been the race director for our annual Midsummer 5K run. “I’m addicted to eating ruisleipä and have recently discovered the Finnish game mölkky (there should be world championships in the future) which is great fun!”
Mari Simonen
An internationally recognized leader on development issues was, until recently, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. She was responsible for management, resource mobilization and partnerships. Mari Simonen is currently Chairperson of the International Board of Trustees of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), a global non- governmental organization fighting poverty through volunteers. Among other current responsibilities, Mari Simonen is member of the independent audit and oversight committee of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and member of the board of directors of Population Action international (PAI).
Annika Springsteel
Annika Springsteel is a senior at Seton Hall University in their School of Diplomacy and International Relations. She is a Dual US and Finnish citizen as well as bilingual in English and Finnish and also minoring in Russian at Seton Hall. Her Finnish heritage is very important to her and interning at the Finland Center Foundation and the Kota Alliance during the summer of 2019 has expanded her knowledge of Finland culturally and linguistically. She is passionate about human rights and environmental sustainability and hopes to dedicate her career to advancing those areas. She is excited to keep working at the Finland Center Foundation as a Board Member.