Juha Sipilä

Juha Sipilä
Leader of the Centre Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
9 June 2012
Preceded by Mari Kiviniemi
Member of Finnish Parliament
for Oulu
Incumbent
Assumed office
20 April 2011
Personal details
Born 25 April 1961
Veteli, Finland
Political party Centre Party
Spouse(s) Minna-Maaria Sipilä
Children 5
Alma mater University of Oulu
Religion Lutheranism

Juha Petri Sipilä (born Veteli, 25 April 1961) is a Finnish politician and businessman, and the incumbent chairman of the Centre Party, elected in 2012. He was elected to the Parliament of Finland in 2011 from the Oulu electoral district, with 5,543 votes.[1] He led the Centre Party to victory in the 2015 general election and is now expected to become Prime Minister of Finland.

Education

Sipilä completed his matriculation examination in 1980 and a Master's degree in engineering from the University of Oulu in 1986.

Family

Sipilä has a wife and five children. His youngest son, Tuomo (born in 1993), died on 18 February 2015.[2]

Business

His career started in Lauri Kuokkanen Ltd., first as a thesis worker and later as a product development manager. Changing jobs, he became a partner and later CEO at Solitra Oy. In 1998, he started up his own business, Fortel Invest Oy. In 2002-2005 he worked as the CEO of Elektrobit Oyj, returned to his own business.

Sipilä was managing direcror of Solitra in 1992 and main owner since 1994. Sipilä sold Solitra in 1996 to American ADC Telecommunications and became a millionaire. Business ADC Mersum Oy was resold to Remec in 2001.[3][4]

Politics

As a student, Sipilä worked for a short time in the Finnish Centre Youth, but otherwise he has not had experience in party politics before being elected to the parliament in 2011.[5]

In April 2012, Sipilä announced his candidacy for the chairman's position in the party congress of the summer. On June 9, 2012, the party congress elected him as the chairman, beating Tuomo Puumala in the second round with 1251 vs. 872 delegate votes.

Personal life

Sipilä is known for his wood gas car hobby.[5] For his summer cottage, the offer he was given for electrification seemed too high, and he got interested in wood gas. First, he produced the electricity with wind power and with a diesel generator, but then he started building wood gas plants. He converted an old Chevrolet El Camino into "El Kamina" (kamina "stove") powered by wood gas, with electronic control systems.[6] This hobby was spun off into a company, Volter Oy, which produces wood gas power plants. A 10-house ecovillage in Kempele is powered by one such power plant.[7][8]

He is a member of Word of Peace (Rauhan Sana), a Lutheran Laestadian group.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Juha Sipilä.
  1. ↑ Juha Sipilä accessed 9 June 2012
  2. ↑ "Juha Sipilä steps back from election campaign after son dies". Yle. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  3. ↑ Yritysuutiset8.1.2004
  4. ↑ Yrityskaupan hyväksyminen; Remec, Inc. / ADC Mersum Oy 26.10.2001
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Miska Rantanen (2012). "PROFILE: Juha Sipilä". Helsingin Sanomat. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZdPkrghUZM
  7. ↑ http://volter.fi/fi/portfolio/kempeleen-ekokortteli/
  8. ↑ http://yle.fi/uutiset/kempeleen_ekokortteli_pyrkii_energiaomavaraisuuteen/5888863