Juha Sipilä

Juha Sipilä
44th Prime Minister of Finland
Assumed office
29 May 2015
President Sauli Niinistö
Deputy Timo Soini
Preceded by Alexander Stubb
Leader of the Centre Party
Assumed office
9 June 2012
Preceded by Mari Kiviniemi
Personal details
Born (1961-04-25) 25 April 1961
Veteli, Finland
Political party Centre Party
Spouse(s) Minna-Maaria Sipilä
Children 5
Alma mater University of Oulu
Religion Laestadianism[1]
Military service
Allegiance  Finland
Service/branch Finnish Army
Rank Captain[2]

Juha Petri Sipilä (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈjuhɑ ˈsipilæ]; born in Veteli, 25 April 1961) is the current Prime Minister of Finland. A relative newcomer to politics, he has a successful background in business.[3] He has been the leader of the Centre Party since 9 June 2012. After leading the Centre party to victory in the 2015 general election, Sipilä formed a centre-right coalition and was appointed Prime Minister by the Finnish parliament on 29 May 2015.[4]

Education and military service

Sipilä graduated from Puolanka lukio (Finland's university-preparatory high school), completing the matriculation examination with high marks in 1980.[5] He has no formal political sciences education. In 1986 Sipilä earned his Master's degree in engineering from the University of Oulu. His thesis is about mobile communication electronics.

Sipilä has the rank of Captain in the reserves of the Finnish Defence Forces.[2]

Business

Sipilä's career started at Lauri Kuokkanen Ltd., first as a thesis worker and later as a product development manager. Changing jobs, he became a partner and later CEO at Solitra Oy. In 1998, Sipilä started his own business, Fortel Invest Oy. In 2002–2005 he worked as the CEO of Elektrobit Oyj, then returned to his own business.

Sipilä was managing director of Solitra in 1992 and became the main owner in 1994. Sipilä sold Solitra to American ADC Telecommunications in 1996, becoming a multimillionaire from the proceeds. Business ADC Mersum Oy was resold to Remec in 2001.[6][7]

Politics

As a student, Sipilä worked for a short time in the Finnish Centre Youth, but otherwise he did not have experience in party politics before being elected to the Finnish parliament in 2011 with 5,543 personal votes.[8][9] In 1990's Finnish Centre Party elite had formed an informal coalition with National Coalition Party.

In April 2012, Sipilä announced his candidacy for the chairman's position in the party congress of the summer. On June 9, 2012, the party congress elected him chairman. He beat Tuomo Puumala in the second round by 1251 to 872 delegate votes.

Sipilä led his party to victory in the 2015 election, where the Centre Party gained 14 seats compared to the previous election. With 30,758 personal votes he was the most popular candidate in the election.[10] Following the election, he was tasked with forming a government coalition; and as the leader of the Centre Party, he began formal negotiations with the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party and formed a three-party majority coalition.[11] Sipilä did not form a government with the political centre and left, despite the willingness of grass-root party members to form a government with Finnish Social Democrats. He kept saying that he did not not trust the Social Democrats, and he demanded from National Coalition leaders that the only economic view the government should hold is the ECB Bank of Finland's policy prescriptions.

Personal life

Family

Sipilä grew up in the small town of Puolanka, northern Finland, east of Oulu, the firstborn of four children to mother Pirkko and father Pentti Sipilä, an elementary school teacher.[5]

In 1981, Sipilä married Minna-Maaria Juntunen at Oulu Cathedral. They have five children.[12][5] Their youngest son, Tuomo (born in 1993), died on 18 February 2015.[13]

Hobby

Sipilä is known for his interest in wood gas electricity generation, which began as a hobby.[9] The cost to bring power to his summer cottage seemed too high, and he became interested in wood gas. First, he produced the electricity with wind power and with a diesel generator, but then he started building wood gas plants. He converted an old Chevrolet El Camino into "El Kamina" (Kamiina means "stove" in Finnish.) powered by wood gas, with electronic control systems.[14] This hobby was spun off into a company, Volter Oy, which produces wood gas power plants. A 10-house ecovillage in Kempele is powered by one such power plant.[15][16] For some reason he wants to keep his homes out of public electricity networks.

Religious affiliation

The Sipiläs are members of Rauhan Sana (transl. "Word of Peace", affiliated in North America with ALCA), a small Laestadian revivalist denomination within the state Lutheran church of Finland. The Sipiläs first met at a Laestadian summer camp as teenagers.[12] Sipilä has stated he does not consider himself a legalistic Laestadian, and in interviews he has carefully distinguished his own Laestadian denomination from his home region's other, predominant, exclusive Laestadian group (Conservative Laestadianism).[17][18][19]

References

  1. ↑ http://news.yahoo.com/millionaire-siplia-hopes-business-savvy-pms-office-094823406.html
  2. 1 2 http://www.iltasanomat.fi/kotimaa/art-1288474136351.html Ilta-Sanomat: Keskustan Juha Sipilä ylennettiin kapteeniksi (4 June 2012) (Finnish)
  3. ↑ http://www.euronews.com/2015/04/19/opposition-leader-juha-sipila-wins-elections-in-finland/
  4. ↑ http://yle.fi/uutiset/mps_vote_sipila_in_as_prime_minister__result_not_unanimous/8025742 YLE News: MPs vote Sipilä in as prime minister- result not unanimous. 28 May 2015
  5. 1 2 3 Mika Koskinen (March 31, 2015). "Näin Juha Sipilä on muuttunut – katso lukio-, hää- ja lapsuuskuvat". Iltasanomat. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  6. ↑ Yritysuutiset8.1.2004
  7. ↑ Yrityskaupan hyväksyminen; Remec, Inc. / ADC Mersum Oy 26.10.2001
  8. ↑ Juha Sipilä accessed 9 June 2012
  9. 1 2 Miska Rantanen (2012). "PROFILE: Juha Sipilä". Helsingin Sanomat. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  10. ↑ "Valitut ehdokkaat Koko maa". Ministry of Justice. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  11. ↑ "Kolmen ässän humppa – seuraa hallitusohjelmavääntöä Smolnassa hetki hetkeltä". Yle. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  12. 1 2 Mika Koskinen (March 31, 2015). "Juha Sipilän suhde vaimoonsa alkoi 16-vuotiaana erikoisesta tarjouksesta". Iltasanomat. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Juha Sipilä steps back from election campaign after son dies". Yle. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  14. ↑ El Kamina – häkäpönttöauto. YouTube. 4 June 2010.
  15. ↑ "Kempeleen ekokortteli". Volter.
  16. ↑ "Kempeleen ekokortteli pyrkii energiaomavaraisuuteen". Yle Uutiset.
  17. ↑ "Tällainen on Sipilän herätysliike – ei abortille ja eutanasialle". Ilta-Lehti. April 15, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Sipilä linjasi suhdettaan lestadiolaisuuteen". Kaleva. May 30, 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Finland poll leader open to deal with eurosceptic populists". Daily Mail UK. April 7, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2015.

External links

Party political offices
Preceded by
Mari Kiviniemi		 Leader of the Centre Party
2012–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
Eero Heinäluoma		 Speaker of the Parliament
2015 		Succeeded by
Maria Lohela
Preceded by
Alexander Stubb		 Prime Minister of Finland
2015–present 		Incumbent
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