Meet Honorary Consul James Johnson of Minnesota
Meet our honorary consuls! Welcome to our series introducing the honorary consuls working with the Consulate General of Finland in New York. Honorary consuls are private individuals who play an important role in promoting Finland and supporting Finnish citizens and companies in their respective regions. They help strengthen Finland’s diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties locally. We are pleased to introduce James “Jimmy” Johnson, our honorary consul in Virginia, Minnesota.
As the turn into the 20th century saw millions of workers migrate across the Atlantic to American mines, farmland and urban factories, the Finns came to be a sizeable bunch in a handful of areas of the country. “While everybody thinks Hancock, Michigan is the heartland of Finnish Americans, there were more Finns in Northern Minnesota by far,” says Johnson who is just celebrating his 25th year as Finland’s Honorary Consul in Virginia, Minnesota.
Johnson’s grandmother migrated to Minnesota before turning 17 years old, and he still has second and third cousins in Finland. His first trip to the North was in 1988. He has met with all Finnish presidents during his tenure and even took President Tarja Halonen swimming in Lake Superior in 2008.
Stepping into the role with a career in the investment and insurance business, Johnson has leveraged his networks to introduce Finnish companies to the region’s diverse industrial ecosystem whose relative outputs by sector nearly match those of the entire national economy. He believes that the reputation of Finns in the area has always been strong and that they tend to have no issues landing employment opportunities. “Finns quietly do their work and they strive for excellence.” He sees that Finnish companies have also become more “aggressive” in their marketing in recent years, learning to “toot their own horn” a little, which is a necessary skill in the highly competitive U.S. market.
While Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes, Minnesota boasts over 10,000 as well as a similar landscape of seemingly endless forests. Having acquainted himself with the business environment on both sides of the Atlantic, he mentions two industries where Finnish skills and technology might be of particular demand in Minnesota: mining and timber.
Among the more recent success stories in Minnesota has been a large paper mill in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, which UPM now operates with 230 employees. Although Minnesota Wild, the National Hockey League team, no longer hosts Finnish players in its ranks, the legacy of players like Mikko Koivu and Mikael Grandlund lives on. Most distinctly, Johnson implies that cultural events such as FinnFest – the annual gathering of Finnish Americans – do a great deal to uphold the heritage of those who brought Finland with them to the U.S. decades ago.
You can find information about all of Finland’s honorary consulates across the U.S. on our website: https://finlandabroad.fi/web/usa/honorary-consulates
