Staff
Lauri Holappa
Executive Director+358 44 248 6540
DSocSc Lauri Holappa has previously worked in multiple positions within academia and elsewhere. He has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, university teacher at the University of Turku, senior researcher at Demos Helsinki and as a special economic policy adviser to former minister of education, Li Andersson. Holappa is also currently affiliated to the University of Helsinki where he serves as a visiting researcher in the Academy of Finland-funded research project “How to overcome tendencies towards trade wars?”.
Antti Alaja
ExpertMSocSc Antti Alaja has previously worked in a research project based at the University of Helsinki and Hanken School of Economics and in various positions for the Helsinki-based think tank Kalevi Sorsa Foundation in 2009–2018. Alaja has published various think tank reports and articles in academic journals, including Science and Public Policy and Innovation: the European Journal of Social Science Research. Alaja`s interests include research and innovation policy, industrial policy and the welfare state development.
Board
Juha Leppänen
ChairmanMSocSc Juha Leppänen is an experienced professional of societal transformations and the CEO of the think tank Demos Helsinki. He helps European and Finnish think tanks to develop their own methods and strategies.
Tuulia Pitkänen
Vice chairmanMSocSc Tuulia Pitkänen has previously worked as the chief of staff and special EU policy adviser for the prime minister. In the autumn of 2023, she will be moving to Rud Pedersen where she works as a senior adviser. Pitkänen is interested in EU policymaking, solutions to structural social inequalities and different welfare state models.
Niina kari
Member of the boardNiina Kari (MSocSc) is a doctoral researcher in global political economy at the University of Helsinki. She specialises in different monetary systems and economic policy space. Kari works in the research project How to overcome tendencies towards trade wars? funded by the Research Council of Finland. In this project, she analyses different plans to reform the international monetary system in ways that would alleviate balance of payments constraints. Kari has also researched the political economy of the eurozone, the eurozone crisis, and the economic governance of the EU. She has previously worked at the human rights organisation Amnesty International.
Laura Nordström
Member of the boardMSocSc, BA Laura Nordström is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki focused on EU policymaking, study of power and lobbying. She has studied expert power in EU economic governance during the euro crisis and recent EMU budget rule reform process. She is especially interested in the role of crises in the transformations of economic thinking. She is also the co-editor of the academic journal Poliittinen Talous (Political Economy).
Patrizio Lainà
Member of the boardDSocSc, MSc (Econ) Patrizio Lainà works as the chief economist of the trade union confederation STTK. He is especially interested in labour markets, monetary and fiscal policy, financial market stability and the macro economy more broadly.
Johan Wahlsten
Member of the boardMSocSc Johan Wahlsten is a doctoral researcher in Political Science at the University of Helsinki and a 2024-2025 Research Affiliate and Fulbright Finland Fellow at Georgetown University’s Global Political Economy Project. Wahlsten is interested widely in questions of political economy, with his work focusing especially on the politics of economic policy and governance. His PhD research examines the global governance of cross-border capital flow regulation after the 2008 financial crisis. He is also the vice-president of the Finnish Society for Political Economy Research.