Suurlähettiläs Maimo Henrikssonin puhe Marcus Wallenberg Prize -tapahtumassa 10.10.2022

Marcus Wallenberg Prize 2022; After Dinner Speech by the Ambassador of Finland Maimo Henriksson

Your Majesties, honorable Marcus Wallenberg Prize Laureates 2022, Professor Ilkka Kilpeläinen and Professor Herbert Sixta, Representatives of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, dear guests,

It is a great honor for me to be invited to this festive event. And it is an even greater honor to be asked to give the After Dinner Speech.

It is in fact a very special feeling to stand here today, thinking of the nine months of this year that have passed. These have been very special times, very demanding times. Russia started a war against Ukraine, which led to even closer Finnish-Swedish cooperation in the field of foreign and security policy. It also led to closer cooperation within the EU, where countries as Sweden, Finland and Austria together with the other EU member states have manifested an unprecedented unity and capability to take unanimous decisions.

In the Finnish-Swedish relations last spring was crowned with President Sauli Niinistö’s state visit to Sweden. The hospitality and warmth with which you, your Majesties, received your Finnish neighbours was something quite outstanding, something to remember forever. It was in many ways a historic visit: on the arrival day the Swedish government decided to apply for Nato membership and on the following day, in the midst of the official program, president Niinistö and the Finnish government, with help of today’s technology, took the corresponding Finnish decision.

With this background you, who know the life and work of Marcus Wallenberg, understand why it is so special to be here today. In Finland we owe a lot of gratitude to Marcus Wallenberg for opening doors to the west. Last autumn Finnish historian Hannu Rautkallio published a book about the Wallenberg family’s relations with Finland. In the book, he presented earlier unknown, secret facts. Thanks to Marcus Wallenberg, wartime president Risto Ryti could send messages to London and Washington. This role of an intermediary was not without dangers. Once when Wallenberg during the war visited president Ryti in Helsinki the following happened: On the recommendation of the Soviet ambassador in Stockholm, madam Kollontai, Stalin and Molotov sent a personal greeting, a 1000 kilo’s bomb, that landed 80 meters from the Swedish embassy. Wallenberg’s comment to president Ryti was: “Bad tactics”.

In Finland we owe a lot of gratitude to Marcus Wallenberg also for his work in promoting business relations between the two countries. One of the concrete deeds was the establishment of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation in 1973. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote research in the field of business management, especially in Finland, but also in a broader international context. In 1981 the Marcus Wallenberg Prize was established. It is the highest award in the field of forestry, colloquially called the “Nobel Prize for Forestry”. The forest has been the core of wealth in Finland and in a very important role also in Sweden, as in Austria.

Tonight we are celebrating the laureates of this year, Professor Ilkka Kilpeläinen and Professor Herbert Sixta, who have been able to develop man-made cellulose fibres, which means that textile fibres can be produced from wood. The achievements are a result of multidisciplinary innovations and cooperation.

We have an excellent mix: a Swedish Prize, based on the understanding of future needs, a Finnish university, the Aalto University in Espoo next to Helsinki, an Austrian professor working at Aalto and a Finnish professor, from the University of Helsinki. Professor Kilpeläinen was recently asked about the secret behind the successful work and he answered “team work”. The researchers have been in a key role, but so have also the industrial partners. A good team, a good mix, in an international setting.

Now you might think that I have completely forgotten what one has to say in an After Dinner Speech, having been carried away by recent events, Marcus Wallenberg’s life’s work and the scientific and commercial results of this year’s prize laureates.

Honored hosts, on behalf of us all: my warmest thanks for this exquisite meal, with the finest of wines, in this beautiful and dignified surrounding. Please, professors Kilpeläinen and Sixta, do not widen your scope and explore, as a next step, how food fibres can be produced out of wood. I think we all are very satisfied by this not man-made, but nature-made food.

Please join me in a toast to thank the hosts and once more congratulate the prize laureates!