Mrs. Terhi Suominen
Vice President of the Atlantic Treaty Association, Secretary-General of the Atlantic Council of Finland  

Ms. Terhi Suominen is a Secretary General of the Atlantic Council of Finland (ACF). Ms. Suominen has been the head of the ACF since January 2009. The Atlantic Council of Finland is a non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organisation devoted to strengthening the transatlantic agenda and promoting transatlantic relations and NATO related issues in Finland. The ACF provides a preeminent and unique discussion, research and education forum and networking hub for Finns who share the common interest in NATO and transatlantic relations with a special focus on foreign and security policy issues. Ms. Suominen was nominated as a Partnership for Peace (PfP) Research Fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome for April 2018 - August 2018. During her fellowship she conducted research on Finland - NATO´s Partner or Future Member? as well as contributed to other research projects, several NATO Defense College programs and courses. Prior to her current duties, Ms. Suominen served as a Project Manager (2005-2008) in Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, the most reputed policy think tank in Finland. As a director of several projects, Ms. Suominen was director of the EVA´s International Relations Advisory Group and was involved in the EVA´s annual attitude and value survey. She was also engaged with the European Business Leaders Convention EBLC (2005-2011) in Helsinki and in St.Petersburg, Russia (2006). Prior to joining EVA, Ms. Suominen was employed as a Research Fellow at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Turku (2004-2005), a Research Assistant and lecturer at the University of Turku (2001-2004) and a Training Programme on European Issues for Finnish Journalists (1999-2002). She has worked in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (2002) and at the Helsinki Global Women Business Leaders Summit (2002). Ms. Suominen holds a M.Soc.Sc. -degree from the University of Turku. She is a Turku Commercial College graduate and has studied at the Turku School of Economics as well. She has attended professional courses and programmes such as the NATO’s Enhanced Partners toward the Warsaw Summit organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (2016) and the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) on the U.S. Foreign Policy Challenges organised by the U.S. Department of State in 2011. Ms. Suominen has completed the National Defence Course (course number 213) organised by the National Defence University of Finland (2015). Ms. Suominen has attended several special courses organised by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Finnish Defence Forces and the Defence Command Finland. Ms. Suominen has been invited to several working groups i.a. President of Finland´s annual Foreign and Security Policy Kultaranta Talks, Finland´s Foreign Minister's Transatlantic Relations Committee and Muutoksen Suomi (“Future challenges of Finland”) appointed by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. She is also consulting and lecturing for Finnish private and public organizations and she has several mainstream media appearances. Ms. Suominen is an author of many publications i.a. Suomi ja Nato (“Finland and NATO”) (ed.), Kun Suomi kääntyi (“When Finland turned to the EU”) (ed.), The United States and the World (together with Eero Kytömaa), European Union and Russia: Different Great Powers (together with Esko Antola), Euroopan turvallisuus ja Suomi (“European Security and Finland” together with Axel Hagelstam) and Networks in the Baltic Sea Region (together with Esko Antola and Hiski Haukkala). She has also published several articles in newspapers, journals and reports such as The Enlargement Conundrum – Who´s Next?, which was published in the Atlantic Treaty Association´s NATO Securing Our Word -report for the NATO Summit in Wales. Ms. Suominen is a founding member of the Women in International Security (WIIS) in Finland and a founding member of the Robert Schuman Society in Finland. In addition she has co-founded the Atlantic Council of Finland Youth Network (2003). She is a vice-president of the Finnish-Qatar Society (since 2009) and a member of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) (since 2006), founded by the CMI chairman, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2008) and the former President of the Republic of Finland (1994-2000), H.E. Martti Ahtisaari. Ms. Suominen is a president of the European Movement in Turku (since 2013), a member of the supervisory board of the League of Finnish American Societies (since 2013) and a council member at the John Morton Center for North American Studies, University of Turku (since 2014). Her languages include Finnish (native language), English (full proficiency), Swedish (full working proficiency), German (intermediate proficiency), French (elementary proficiency), Italian (elementary proficiency) and Estonian (elementary proficiency). The areas of expertise and interest of Ms. Suominen include NATO, transatlantic relations, Finland-NATO -relations, Western European NATO Partners, Finnish foreign, security and integration policy and Finnish security identity.