Olli Hyytiäinen new Honorary Consul in Winnipeg
Our consular team is at full strength again – Olli Hyytiäinen has assumed the duties of Honorary Consul of Finland in Manitoba after the retirement of Heikki Sairanen from the post.
Olli Hyytiäinen, originally from Järvenpää, Finland, met his wife while on a student exchange in Rotterdam which brought him to Canada in 2006.
In Canada he started working for the Winnipeg office of Finnish company KONE(Link to another website.). Its area of operations covers the province of Manitoba and North-West Ontario about as far as Marathon. The Winnipeg office is part of the Western Canada division with a district office in Vancouver. They represent one of the geographically largest divisions in the company’s global organization.
Hyytiäinen started his career at KONE in elevator sales and project management, moving on to office management. It meant multitasking from dealing with everything from plumbing to contract negotiations and B2B sales. A new aspect of his job description is applying cloud computing to traditional services. KONE has been a forerunner in this - locally and globally.
In his free time Hyytiäinen volunteers with a local biking organization. In his youth, he biked competitively and as a result, he got to see many corners of Europe. Biking in its many forms has remained as a favourite sport that also engages him in organizing competitions and other events.
Boating is another favourite pastime for Olli Hyytiäinen.
These days in his free time our active honorary consul enjoys bike rides together with his family, building saunas, cross country and downhill skiing. He enjoys cottaging and his everyday lifestyle feels pretty Finnish, apparently something that stayed with him when moving to Canada. Summer vacations tend to be spent in Finland because of all the relatives living there, although during Covid family trips there were on hold.
Olli Hyytiäinen and family, wife Melissa with daughters Pinja and Siiri, attend a local folk festival.
Olli Hyytiäinen comments on his position as honorary consul: ’my goal is to bring together at least some of the Finns and those with Finnish heritage in Winnipeg and Manitoba, because we are more than and a handful here’.