Former Governor of Bank of Finland to head new Finnish National Opera Board

Economist brought in to rescue crisis-hit establishment

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Former Governor of the Bank of Finland Sirkka Hämäläinen has been chosen as the Chair of the new Board of the Foundation of the Finnish National Opera. The Ministry of Education has made a decision that the new Board of Directors will have only nine members - and not 14 as before.
      In addition, the Ministry has named four other members to the Board of Directors, namely Lasse Arvela, the Director General of the Tax Department of the Ministry of Finance, Jan Hultin, the General Director of Savonlinna Opera Festival, Raija-Sinikka Rantala, the Executive Director of the Finnish National Theatre, as well as opera singer Esa Ruuttunen.
      Furthermore, two new board members are to be named by the City of Helsinki, and one each by the City of Espoo and the City of Vantaa.
      According to Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela (Centre), the new Board of Directors, which is to start its work in April, will be a restructuring board with a special task to stabilise the financial and administrative situation of the troubled National Opera over the course of the next three years.
     
One reason for the crisis is believed to be the current management style, based on two directors. The problems have derived in part from the difference in views of General Director Erkki Korhonen and Administrative Director Pekka Kauranen.
      One of the tasks will also be to decide on the status of General Music Director Mikko Franck, who announced his resignation three weeks ago. Franck himself would be willing to continue until the end of his statutory 12 months’ notice, while the directors of the Opera would like him to leave already at the end of this month.
     
Sirkka Hämäläinen was cautious to wait for the full composition of the new Board before issuing any comments, and said she does not wish to take a stand on future decisions as yet, while acknowledging that she is not an expert of opera.
      All the same, Hämäläinen, 67, who is a Doctor of Science in Economics and Business Administration, has all the credentials to be successful in her new post.
      Her main jobs will be to put the financial situation of the opera back on a sound footing as well as to improve relations between the management and the staff so as to make it possible in the future to create art instead of incessantly chewing over problems.
      The new chairman will have rather more power at her disposal than her predecessors, and it has been speculated that in this respect Hämäläinen will have considerable say in who runs the Opera and for how long.
     
After resigning from the Bank of Finland in 1998, Hämäläinen worked as a Director at the European Central Bank until her retirement in 2003.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  General Music Director resigns from Finnish National Opera (15.2.2007)
  Finnish National Opera to decide on strategic recovery plan today (26.4.2006)

Links:
  Finnish National Opera

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