Kristiina Mäkelä appointed as Aalto University Provost

The Board of Aalto University has appointed Vice Dean of the School of Business Kristiina Mäkelä as the University's Provost. The position will start 1 December 2017, with a period of office of five years. She follows Ilkka Niemelä, whose five-year term as President began on 1 July.

PhD Kristiina Mäkelä has worked at Aalto University as an Associate and Full Professor of International Business since 2013. Professor Mäkelä was appointed Vice Dean of Teaching and Learning at the School of Business in 2016. She has also worked as deputy head of the Department of Management Studies and as head of the International Business Unit. Her research focuses on the future of work, human resource management, and people-related issues in multinational corporations.

Before joining Aalto, Mäkelä worked at Hanken School of Economics, and she has been a visiting researcher and teacher in several universities abroad. In addition, she has over ten years of industry experience.

Dividing the responsibilities of the senior management between the President and Provost follows standard international practice. The Provost leads all processes related to teaching, research, innovation and societal impact, and supervises the work of the University schools.

‘After a thorough search process we found an excellent new provost to lead our academic activities amidst the increasingly tough international competition. Kristiina Mäkelä has outstanding research-based expertise and practical experience in leadership as well as an impressive academic track record. She also has a strong commitment to Aalto’s multidisciplinary and student-focused way of working as well as the drive to engage and inspire the Aalto community towards the common goals of the university’, explains President Niemelä.

‘Aalto University is shaping the future through a multidisciplinary mission of combining science and art with technology and business. It is an honour to work towards our ambitious goals as a part of this unique community,’ says Mäkelä.