I started my term as the Rector of the University of Turku on 1 August 2019. Prior to that my extensive experience in academic leadership included, inter alia, positions as the Rector of the University of Helsinki and in the Board of Directors, and Rectors' Forum, of the League of the European Research Universities LERU. In addition, during the last decades I have created extensive international networks, profound knowledge of the national and international university field, including various funding sources and channels, and active collaboration with different sectors and actors in academia and society at large.

In several international scientific associations I have had positions of trustees, including memberships in the Executive Committees and the Board of Directors of e.g. European Association of Agricultural Economists EAAE and International Food and Agribusiness Association IFAMA, in which I still act as a Counselor. The Fulbright Scholarship enableb me to study and do research at the University of Illinois UIUC in 1989-1990.

My academic field is Agricultural Economics and Policy, and I started as acting Professor in 1992 and full Professor in 1999 at the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Helsinki, where I also served two terms as the Dean of the Faculty in 2004-2009, after which I was the Vice-Rector of the U of Helsinki in 2010-2013.