Christer Haglund is the new director of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia

04.02.15 | News
After 14 years’ service in the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a further 14 years working in the private sector in Finland, Christer Haglund took up the post of director of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia at the start of February.

- I’m really pleased that I’ll be getting to know Estonia a lot better and getting to work with our partners towards objectives that are important to both the Nordic countries and Estonia itself, Haglund said. We can learn a lot from one another, and we can work together to ensure a better future for everyone who lives on the Baltic Sea.

Born into Finland’s Swedish-speaking community, Haglund studied literature and political science and Swedish at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku before working as a journalist for a local newspaper. This led him to the Press Department of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which he rose up over the years to become director of public relations – a role in which, among other things, he was Head of Media during Finland’s first presidency of the Council of the European Union.

In 2000, after 14 years with the ministry, Haglund was headhunted by Finnair and went on to become Senior Vice President, corporate communications and a member of the management board of the airline. From autumn 2011 until autumn last year, he served as the CEO of the Finnish Fair Corporation.

Berth Sundström, the previous director of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Office in Estonia, completed his term in autumn 2014.

The Nordic Council of Ministers, which is the official inter-governmental body for cooperation in the Nordic region, was founded in 1971. It opened its office in Estonia in spring 1991. The office brings together politicians, experts, officials and others from the Nordic countries, Estonia and the other Baltic States in areas of mutual interest: the green and creative economies, science and innovation, social welfare and culture. The aim is to boost the global competitiveness of the Nordic-Baltic region via the creation of and support for cooperation networks.