Kainuu in all its diversity project highlights the career and entrepreneurial stories of women in the Kainuu region, as well as new models of working. The project highlights examples and good practices of how employers take into account diverse employees and their changing circumstances.
Discover the unique stories below!
“Once upon a time there was a girl from the country who thought that the big world was somewhere else. She thought that if she wanted to achieve or do something in her life, she had to leave Kainuu. Because everything happens in the big world there.” These words could begin my career story, and in the same breath I can immediately say how wrong that girl from the country was.
A large part of my working career has been spent in various customer service positions. After high school, my path took me to a family business in the clothing industry for 13 years and I trained in sales, supervisor and merchant positions alongside my work. This was followed by a strong passion for entrepreneurship and I continued to work as an entrepreneur in the same industry for over 9 years. I have always felt that I am primarily an entrepreneur, and even now I am motivated at work by the same inner entrepreneurship as when I work in my own company.
I am Maija-Reetta Daly and I was raised in the village of Korpela in Suomussalmi. After high school, I went to the world through a few twists and turns in Finland, traveling there for eight years. I met my Irish husband in Australia and now we have lived for the last nine years near the Hossa National Park. We own the Camping Hossa Lumo campsite.
I am Elina Kiviaho and I work as a project manager at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences in a project called Work and Family Kainuu. My task is to help employers in Kainuu to profile themselves as family-friendly employers, thereby increasing the attraction and retention power of both the company itself and the entire Kainuu region.
My name is Annika Hämäläinen and I am the CEO and entrepreneur of Teollisuustaito Oy.
I am Anu Kemppainen, an accounting firm entrepreneur, accountant and mother of two from Kajaani.
I am Mari Määttä and I work as a project manager at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences in the Future Entrepreneurs from Kainuu project. In the three-year project, we promote student entrepreneurship in the region, among other things, by developing entrepreneurship studies and teachers’ entrepreneurship education skills. I was born in Kajaani and moved back with my family in 2017.
My name is Marika Paananen and I work at Ceriffi Oy in responsibility and sustainability reporting, helping companies with various tasks related to responsibility programs and reporting. My duties also include various sales and marketing tasks.
I am Niina Ahtonen and I am currently the Director of the CEMIS Research and Education Center (see www.cemis.fi). CEMIS is a center for measurement technology and data expertise formed by five RDI organizations operating in Kainuu. I am also involved in the implementation of the Kajaani Region Innovation Ecosystem Agreement (see https://innokaupungit.fi/) and in the development of the Kajaani Data Center Ecosystem.
I am Heini-Maari Kemppainen, a 35-year-old design-oriented business scientist from Kajaani. I returned to my hometown of Kajaani with my family after living in Helsinki for over ten years, in the summer of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. This was preceded by a year-long “exchange year”, as we call it, in Hyrynsalmi – this year interrupted my years in Helsinki and left me with a burning desire to return to Kainuu more permanently – whenever the time was right. I am a mother of three, a wife, and our family also includes a retirement-age English greyhound.
Kainuu is a place where doing work itself is still valuable. Here you can study and advance in your career while living a unique, balanced life. The work culture here is fair and open. Responsibility and achievement motivate the majority of employees. This is reflected in productivity and a sense of teamwork.
Passion for work drives us forward year after year. Without it, we wouldn’t have made it through those years. Without passion, there would have been no new products or innovations. Passion is when you want to offer the customer the best possible service with the resources available. It’s when you create solutions for customers without counting the hours – and you learn year after year so that you can always offer better.
I am Kirsi Moisanen, originally from Kajaani, but a mother who has lived in Sotkamo for over 30 years. I currently work in Kajaani University of Applied Sciences as a Senior Lecturer in the Master’s degree programmes in Social and Health Sciences. I am also involved in politics, including in the Kainuu Regional Government.
I am Mari Möttönen, who has traveled the world and found her soul home in Kainuu 17 years ago. Today, I am the CEO of Kainuun Yrittäjät.