Our purpose is your success!

Finland’s journey to one of the happiest, most innovative, and competitive countries in the world could not have happened without its unique education system. Professional Publishing Finland founders have extensive experience within the education sector. The company was founded to share this know-how and competence, so that anyone could aim for their own success stories in their careers and
organizations.

THE FOUNDERS

portrait picture of dr. Lauri Tuomi

Dr. Lauri Tuomi

has more than 25 years of experience in the Finnish education system. He has worked as teacher, trainer, manager, and vice president in the vocational and higher education.

During his career he has worked as administrator and later as director in The Finnish National Agency of Education (a subsidiary of Ministry of Education and Culture). Moreover, he has worked as an independent consultant on strategic management. Today he is the CEO of the Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation.  He is a member of the board in several organisations in Finland and Europe e.g. the Vice President of European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA).

He holds a PhD in the strategic management. He is an author and co-author of numerous books and articles on strategic management, change management, competence management, lifelong learning and innovation. He has acted as
panelist and he has given numerous key notes on international conferences in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Dr. Ritva Laakso-Manninen

has 30 years of experience in the management of higher education, IT services and banking. She was the president and CEO of Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences for 16 years. She has acted as the Chair of the UAS Rectors’ Conference and as the chair or a member of several other boards.

She has extensive experience working on an international university council in German and in higher education quality development projects in different countries like South-Africa, Colombia and Ireland.

She holds a PhD with specialization in management. She has written books and articles on strategic and competence management as well as sustainable renewal.

The Education Finland programmes membership badge.

An official member of Education Finland programme

Education Finland is a governmental cluster programme supporting the best education providers in their growth on the international market. The programme is coordinated by the Finnish National Agency for Education and funded by Ministry of Education and Culture.  To become a member, companies must meet our high standards.

WRITERS AND COLLABORATORS

Tapio Lahtero, Ph.D. (Adjunct Professor)

has been making his career both in the education departments of municipalities and at the universities. He graduated as a primary teacher at the University of Turku in 1993 and made his doctoral theses at the University of Jyväskylä in 2015 with the topic “Leadership culture at schools”. He finished his eMBA exam in Leadership in the public management in 2015 at the University of Tampere.

He has worked for over twenty years as a principal, as a regional principal and as the superintendent of the comprehensive schools in the education department in City Vantaa, Finland. Since 2015 he is the Director of Department of Teacher Training Schools of the University of Helsinki – Viikki Teacher Training School and Helsinki Normallyceum. He has been educating principals and leaders of education departments of municipalities at the Universities of Jyväskylä, Turku and Helsinki.

He is currently Director of the Rector Training Program at the University of Helsinki and a sought-after lecturer and consultant at international context. He has also held management positions in several continuing education projects funded by the Finnish National Board of Education. Tapio Lahtero has supervised theses and dissertations on educational leadership, and has published several research articles about leadership culture, distributed leadership, and pedagogical leadership.

Mikko Salonen, MA (Ed.)

has an extensive experience in the pedagogical field. During the first years of his career he worked as a teacher and later as a principal of an elementary school in Espoo, Finland for a period of nearly 20 years. The school was specialized in mathematics and science and it worked in an innovative network with other schools in Finland and Europe and thereby created a successful working community and a high reputation.

Currently he works in his own company Konsulttipaja Oy. He is highly valued consulting partner in various long- and short-term educational leadership projects both in Finland and abroad. His consulting assignments range mainly from assisting different kind of educational organizations to supporting individual schools in their development and transformation. He has also experience in helping and supporting organizations in crisis.

Apart from organizational consultation Mikko also works as a personal mentor and coach for principals and educational leaders. Ever since he started working as principal, he has worked as a trainer and planner for national development programmes for principals and educational leaders and this work continues.

Go to Konsulttipaja
portrait picture of Hannele Koli

Hanne Koli

is a teacher educator, designer, work counselor and non-fiction writer from Helsinki. She has educated thousands of teachers about digital learning, guidance and student assessment. Her Pedagogical Star Lessons online course for teachers’ professional development is already in use in China, Malesia, Indonesia, Georgia, India, Brazil and Uzbekistan. She has written many non-fiction books about pedagogical practices starting from ICT-strategies for schools to designing online learning practices. She has designed numerous online courses to different organizations.

drawn portrait picture of light brown haired person wearing light grey top.

Minna Björkman

is a psychologist and educator, who has a long experience in early childhood education and pedagogy. She founded a successful group of early childhood education schools and took the Finnish National Core Curriculum and further developed it into the successful pedagogy used in these schools.

Mika Kamensky

M.Sc, management consultant LJK Mika Kamensky has extensive experience developing corporate and leadership competencies. He has consulted hundreds of companies, thousands of leaders, and tens of thousands of people through his Kamensky Consulting company, which has operated for 40 years. He has served as a board member and chairman of the Training Managers Association, Management Consultants, and the Finnish Strategic Management Society, where he is one of the founding members and honorary members.

 

Mika has published 15 professional management books, the most famous bestsellers of which have been the strategy books "Strateginen johtaminen” (Strategic Management) and ”Menestyksen timantti”  (The Diamond of Success). He has applied the proven teachings of strategy, leadership, and competence to the management and development of one's own life in his latest work ”Ihmisen elämän timantti” (The Diamond of Human Life).

Anneli Valpola

Anneli has a background in Human Resources and Change Management. She has worked in top positions at Wärtsilä, and as a business consultant for a long time. Her focus is and has been on Executive and Leadership Development, Human Resource Strategies, and Transformation processes. She has cooperated with MIL Institute in Sweden and Ashridge Management Consultants in the UK.

She has a vision of working life, where people encourage each other and innovate for outcomes. She motivates herself with the motto:  let’s put the overall on and get started!

Anneli has authored a pile of books, some are in English, some in Swedish. However, the main portions are available only in Finnish.

Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson is Ph.D. (education) and the subject of his dissertation was the
development of unified basic education in the municipality's school organization.

Johnson worked in Kokkola as a class teacher for 10 years and for 17 years as principal
of Torkinmäki school, and from 2008 to 2020 as the Director of Education and Culture in the city of Kokkola. Since then, he has worked as a Senior Advisor in his company License to learn Ltd.

Johnson has worked as a trainer, auditor, mentor, and coach in the field of teaching and education leadership since 2000. He has written umerous educational articles as well as professional literature and reports in the field. From 2021, he has been the chairman of the Editorial Board of the OPPIVA network's
Pore publications.

His areas of interest are sociology of education, educational management,
cooperative learning and management, action research and sustainable
development of education. He has been a speaker at several domestic and
international seminars and conferences in Europe, the United States, and Australia.

Peter Johnson was Vice-President of the Finnish Principals' Association SURE
2004–2006 and President 2007–2009. He was Vice-President of OPSIA ssociation, leaders and experts of education in Finland from 2016 to 2022. He received the Direction of Education -award in 2015 and the title of Kouluneuvos (Finnish honorary
title in the field of education, granted by the President of Finland) in 2017.

Kimmo Tanttu

Master of Education Kimmo Tanttu has graduated as a class teacher from the University of Joensuu and as a mathematics subject teacher from the University of Jyväskylä.
Tanttu was a class teacher in Varkaus 1985-1986, after that he moved to Anttola elementary school in Mikkeli as a school principal in 1986. In 2000, the school started as a unified school (grades 1-9), where Tanttu continued as principal. From 2011 to 2021, he was the principal of Mäntyharju Unified School.
Since then, he has continued as a trainer in his company KTConsultation, and trained management teams and staff of unified schools. International experience has been gained from cooperation between schools in Germany.
Tanttu has co-authored several publications and lectured at national seminars on unified school pedagogy and school well-being. In addition, he has been in the steering groups of several national projects related to unified schools or school well-being.
Tanttu was a member of THL's School Health Survey steering group in 2013–2015. He was the President of the Finnish unified school network SYVE Association 2004–2015 and the President of the Principals of Etelä-Savo 2018–2021. In 2016, Kimmo Tanttu received the OAJ educational influencer of the year honorary mention. Since 2022, Tanttu has been a member of the board of the Otavia Company of the city of Mikkeli.

Mari Heikkinen

Master of Education Mari has graduated as a class teacher and a special teacher. She worked as a class teacher in
Suutarila and Töyrynummi elementary schools in Helsinki from 1997 to 1999, at
Seutula school in Vantaa from 2000 to 2002, and as a class, special needs teacher special class needs teacher at Kerava Savio school from 2002 to 2010.


In the years 2007–2010, she also worked as a special education coordinator. She
served as the principal of the Savio school from 2010 to 2018 and as the director of growth and learning support at Kerava from 2018 to 2019. Since
2019, she has been the principal of Porolahti unified elementary school in
Helsinki.

Heikkinen is interested in the school's welfare work and the development of an inclusive
school. During her working career, she has developed models and structures for organizing support in learning and multiprofessional cooperation as well as inclusive school and creative models of support in learning. She is interested in the
themes of the learning community, shared leadership, working together, and a
unified school path. She has worked as one of the three pedagogical specialists
in planning the construction of Keravanjoki Unified School and Päivölänlaakso
elementary school.

Mari Heikkinen has been one of the authors of the Finnish mother tongue and
literature textbook series Vipunen. She has also been a board member of the
Uusimaa Principals’ Association since 2012.

 

 

Hanna Maunumäki

Master of Education Hanna Maunumäki has graduated as a dual qualified teacher, specializing as a class teacher and in Finnish mother tongue (language) and literature. She worked in Kokkola as a class teacher for three years and since 2008, she has been the principal of Torkinmäki school.
Torkinmäki school operates as a training school for class teacher training at Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius, and in connection with the principal's role, Maunumäki has participated in the guidance of teaching training, its management and development, and student selection for 15 years.


Maunumäki participated in the negotiation and planning processes of the life-cycle procurement of Torkinmäki unified school and early childhood education, preparing, among other things, the pedagogical plan together with the staff and the criteria for evaluating the quality of school building design solutions. The new building of the early childhood education and the unified school, implemented as a life-cycle project, was taken into use in 2017.


She has gained international experience from the cooperation between schools in the United States and Lithuania.
Maunumäki is interested in the development of co-teaching, unified school pedagogy, educational management, and school building planning based on pedagogy. She has developed unified school pedagogy and joint management of school and early childhood education in cooperation with her colleagues.