Mikko Manninen has been named the new executive director of Music Finland. Manninen, who has had a long career in the Finnish recording industry field, is known as an inspiring and visionary leader whose core competencies include strategic planning. Manninen moves to Music Finland from Warner Music Finland, where he has been the general manager for the Baltics and senior director of operations in Finland. By education, Manninen has a master's degree in economics.

Manninen starts his position as executive director at Music Finland on March 6.

"I am extremely excited about the opportunity to join Music Finland's professional and competent organization. Working within Finnish music export has been my dream for a long time and I believe that my experience in the international music business will be useful in my new position. Supporting and serving the export-level artists, music creators and companies of the Finnish music scene in the best possible way is the central goal guiding our activities", says Mikko Manninen.

Music Finland's board enthusiastically welcomes the new executive director:

"Mikko Manninen has versatile and long experience in the music industry. I am remarkably happy that we now have someone of Mikko's caliber to pilot Music Finland forward in its important mission. Mikko will hop on board at just the right time, because we have a strategic process ahead of us that will determine the activities of the coming years. His experience is worth its weight in gold in our developing and changing operating environment, as well as the normalization of export operations after the pandemic," says Tom Frisk, chairman at Music Finland's board.

Music Finland is a music export organization that represents the entire Finnish music industry and works to ensure that Finnish music can internationalize and grow. During its over ten-year history, the value of Finnish music exports has nearly tripled, the field has become more professional and numerous new success stories have emerged.

"Music as one of the drivers of the creative industry is a significant source of future growth, and internationalization is a vital condition for the industry's development in Finland. The success of Finnish music in the world shows that goal-oriented work has been done for a long time, and with that, our skills and competitiveness are at an international level and the growth will continue in the future. We warmly welcome Mikko to our gang!", Music Finland's Head of Communications and Promotion Heli Lampi adds.