Meet Honorary Consul Jon Jurva of Chicago, Illinois
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 Jon Jurva, our honorary consul in Chicago, Illinois.
Jon Jurva has been Finland’s Honorary Consul in Chicago, Illinois since 2019. Having graduated from the University of Michigan Law School with a JD in 1999, he is a partner at ArentFox Schiff, a national law firm based in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the national board for the Finlandia Foundation – the largest Finnish-American network in the U.S.
All four of Jurva’s grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Finland. He has maintained a strong connection to the country throughout his whole life and contributed extensively to the work of the Finnish-American Chamber of Commerce. The chamber, which has expanded from New York where it was founded in 1948, looks to develop new business opportunities and foster the cultural-commercial bonds between the U.S. and Finland.
Like other Honorary Consuls, Jurva also hosts advance voting in Finnish elections, helps local Finnish citizens get their passports renewed, and connects them to the broader Finnish community in the U.S. Among Jurva’s favorites activities in his role has been encouraging the post-pandemic revival of community events in the Chicago area, hosting Finnish-American networking events at his law firm. As some of the retail space in central Chicago had emptied following the COVID-19 restrictions, Jurva and other Nordic Honorary Consuls in the city collaborated with the Mayor’s Office to make use of those spaces to put together a showcase of Nordic businesses, networks, and cultural exchange in the area. “The Finnish community is relatively small in Chicago and throughout the country, but working together with the other Nordic countries we can do more,” he says. Similarly close cooperation is happening with countries like Estonia: the Finnish language school in Chicago is located at the Estonia House in Riverwoods, Illinois.
Jurva shares that the Finnish brand has grown stronger in Illinois in recent years, not least thanks to the state’s particular interest in quantum-enabled technology. Finland is home to multiple key players in the global supply chain and development of quantum solutions. IQM builds some of the world’s most powerful quantum-powered supercomputers, and Bluefors is the global market leader in cooling systems for such technologies. Another area of focus in the region has been foodtech where Finnish startups also have key expertise.
Leveraging his background as a corporate lawyer, Jurva regularly advises Finnish companies on joint ventures and contract negotiations as they enter the U.S. market. According to Jurva, the Chicago area is fertile ground for international collaboration with its attractive talent pool and convenient distance to other metropolitan areas in the country.
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.