Our alum Paula Mäkeläinen: Responsibility work requires foresight, engagement skills and perception of the big picture
Proactive and cross-sectional responsibility
Paula Mäkeläinen’s educational and work background covers a wide spectrum of sectors. She holds a master’s degree in environmental policy from Tampere University and a bachelor’s degree in social services from Laurea University of Applied Sciences. She has also studied future at Turku School of Economics and, as her latest merit, she completed a Certified Board Member qualification at Tampere Chamber of Commerce.
As for working life, Paula was a long-standing account director in a startup focused on the healthcare and social care sector. In spring 2023, she started as Head of Sustainable Culture at Suomen Hyötytuuli Oy, a company promoting Finnish wind power production. Paula’s new position is important for the company in many respects, one being that responsibility is a fundamental element in the company’s strategy and one of its key values, alongside efficiency and pioneering.
“It has felt really good starting work in this new position. It sparks me and I’ve sort of returned to my roots. After my studies in environmental policy and regional sciences, I first worked in renewable energy research and development. Then I developed remote services for the social and healthcare sector for nearly a decade, and in the meantime, the renewable energy sector had taken a major leap forward,” Paula says.
In fact, there’s a lot happening in the energy sector even now. In her role, Paula will be preparing her employer for upcoming ESG reporting obligations. For a company the size of Suomen Hyötytuuli Oy, the directive will be binding from 2025 onwards. The company has a long history of responsible operations in many ways, so the new measures are aimed at documenting these positive actions and developing new ones.
”Responsibility covers our operations across all individuals, throughout the organisation and the whole wind power lifecycle. I am managing a wide-ranging and challenging area, as measuring responsibility, for example, is not all that simple. We are putting our focus on doing our best based on the latest available information and actively developing new solutions,” Paula says.
Despite her versatile interests and experiences, Paula finds a few common threads in her path so far.
”I have always wanted to impact social matters, and secondly, everything has always come down to people for me. Even responsibility is fundamentally put into practice by people in their everyday lives. What social and healthcare also have in common with the energy field is that they both involve strong, existing structures, and that changes are therefore typically slow. They are both also heavily influenced by politics. What’s more, they are both highly important in people’s everyday lives,” Paula notes.
Orderliness gives room for creativity
Paula graduated as a Master of Administrative Sciences from Tampere University in 2003. She finds her studies in environmental policy and regional sciences to have given her career a good foundation. In her current position, for example, she must know how to look at things from a wide angle, combine various factors, and also identify what practical measures are needed right now to work towards larger objectives.
”I’ve been interested in environmental affairs ever since the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. In university studies, I found environmental policy to be a fascinating topic due to its many dimensions. During my studies at the turn of the millennium, the field was only just being put together, so the education offered at Tampere University was pioneering even back then.”
Paula also found regional sciences to be very interesting, and she noticed that the same topics were often examined in both subjects, only from different perspectives.
”The studies are directly linked to my current work too, as regional economies and regional communities are always connected to wind power lifecycles in one way or another,” Paula says.
Other traits that come in handy in responsibility work include curiosity and a combination of orderliness and creativity. One must also know how to inspire the right people and organisations and how to engage different stakeholders. Since responsibility is a shared cause, Paula appreciates the mandate she has been given and the team’s support behind her.
”The field of responsibility is so wide that its management requires organisational skills. I’ve been creative since I was young, and I’ve noticed that when I work, I first use orderliness to lay a foundation. The foundation then leaves room for creativity and storytelling on top of it,” Paula describes.
Originally from the city of Pori in western Finland, Paula moved to Tampere for studies in 1998 and has lived there since. She says she is proud of specifically being a Tampere University alumna.
”I have always appreciated what Tampere University does and the areas in which it offers education and conducts research. The range is wide and interesting – and it only expanded further with the university merger,” Paula concludes.
INFO BOX
Who: Paula Mäkeläinen
Education: Master of Administrative Sciences (Environmental Policy and Regional Sciences) 1999–2003
Work: Head of Sustainable Culture, Suomen Hyötytuuli Oy
Quote: ’I’ve always had many irons in the fire. Besides work and studies, I’ve also been involved with a theatre for children and youth ever since its founding, even as a chairperson and a board member. I also wrote a play half by accident, and four more later on. Currently I’m involved with an art project in which I’ve interviewed elderly people about their lives. One of my dreams is to write a book, and later in my career I could perhaps be a part-time horse therapist for youth. You can do different things in life, both overlapping and successive, while listening to your own values and letting your intuition guide you. Staying active keeps your mind fresh.”
Text: Tiina Leivo
Picture: Jonne Renvall