1. Big Society – How municipalities are making it real Friday 30 November At the British Embassy Itäinen Puistotie 17, 00140 Helsinki FEDERATION OF FINNISH-BRITISH SOCIETIES In Collaboration with the BRITISH EMBASSY

2. Kim Ryley Chief Executive Cheshire East Council U.K. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Kim’s original ambition was to be an Historian and, after completing his post graduate studies in the United States, he pursued an initial career in Education Management in London. In his first post as Chief Executive, Kim led a failing unitary council in Wales to become the highly commended runner-up as the “most improved UK Council of the year” in 2004. Kim then joined Hull City Council, transforming it from being “the worst local authority in the country” to a highly rated organisation, judged to be “improving well”, and which was the “most improved UK Council of the year” in 2010. Kim took up his role as Chief Executive of Shropshire Council in October 2009, and led a radical programme of transformation to make the new unitary authority ‘fit for purpose’ in the 21st Century. He has recently been seconded to Cheshire East Council as their interim Chief Executive, to lead a major change programme there. Kim has over 30 years experience in public service. He is the recent past President of SOLACE (the UK professional association for local authority chief executives), a Trustee of the Local Government Leadership Centre, and a national and international speaker on public service leadership and innovation.

3. Sonia Roberts Chair Voluntary & Community Sector Assembly Shropshire U.K. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY After spending 20 years in the fashion industry, working in a variety of roles including Global Product Development Director and Franchising Director for an international UK based company, Sonia left the commercial sector to be closer to her family and began a career in the voluntary sector. Sonia joined Young Enterprise an international organisation, mentoring young people to develop entrepreneurial and business skills. She helped develop and grow the organisation and programme delivery throughout Shropshire, the West Midlands and UK. Since 2003 Sonia has been Charity Manager at Landau an organisation supporting individuals with a wide range of learning and support needs into meaningful employment. Since joining the company it has expanded and now operates across, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Stoke, Staffordshire and the Black Country and delivers national and local contracts. Sonia has been actively involved in the VCSA in Shropshire since its inauguration, and is currently Chair of the Board and Shropshire Providers Consortium, she is also Chair of the Shropshire Disability Network; she sits on a number of boards across the West midlands actively involved in funding rising for a range of other charities and organisations both locally and internationally. Sonia has an MSc in Business Management and a Diploma in Public Service Leadership. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

4. Oskari Auvinen Chief Executive Officer Pirkkala municipality Finland Oskari started his career in child welfare in the city of Tampere in 1995. In 2000 he moved to Kangasala municipality to head social services. In 2004 he started heading Kangasala’s services for the elderly and the disabled. Oskari joined Pirkkala municipality in 2007 to head health care and social services. In 2010 Oskari worked as a liquidator for the Pirkanmaa region (population 500 000) to find new collaboration methods in health care and social services. In 2010 Oskari started working as the Chief Executive Officer of Pirkkala. In this position, he is responsible for the operational management of the municipality. In the past two years Pirkkala has renewed its management system. The new system unites strong political leadership with determined goal orientation. Oskari is a Master of Social Sciences. In 2012 he graduated from an eMBA programme in management of social and health services. Oskari has an extensive experience of 17 years in management positions in public administration. His special interests are management development, strategic management, customer centric ways of working and principle of continuous improvement. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY