This will take place by extending the activities of Aalto University Executive Education Oy (Aalto EE) to include the commercial professional development activities of both Aalto University Professional Development (Aalto PRO) and the School of Business’ Small Business Center (PYK). All three businesses are deeply rooted in the Aalto University community.
The new entity will retain the existing name of Aalto University Executive Education Oy and will have total annual net sales of around EUR 21 million. It will employ around 130 executive education and professional development professionals and its Managing Director will be Pekka Mattila, who has headed up Aalto EE since 2011.
“This is a great opportunity, both for us and for our customers,” says Pekka Mattila. “The merger will create a strong player in a Nordic scale and one that will be capable of serving its customers more effectively, whether they are professionals, supervisors or senior executives and whether they work in large or small private and public organisations.”
The merger will not entail any changes for, or require any actions by, customers, and all contracted projects and training will continue normally. The more comprehensive range of services that will be available through the extended organisation next year will open up new opportunities, however.
“Going forward, we will be able to offer customers solutions covering a wider range of organisational and professional needs and be an even stronger partner for our customers’ organisations in their strategic development work,” continues Mattila.
The merger will not result in any redundancies. The changes only cover commercial continuing education services and will not affect the other activities of the Small Business Center. Some of Aalto PRO’s and most of PYK’s current personnel will remain employees of Aalto University.
The merger is a response to a policy decision by the Ministry of Education and Culture that continuing education should be defined as a business activity and not a core university function. It will also clarify the position of the Aalto University Foundation, with the non-profit aspects of activities remaining the responsibility of the Foundation and business activities that of a separate company.
Further information:
Marianna Bom, Director, Finance, Aalto University, tel. +358 (0)50 575 3762
Pekka Mattila, Managing Director, Aalto University Education Oy, tel. +358 (0)40 738 7221
Background information
Aalto EE
Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE) offers high-quality executive education services drawing on the expertise of Aalto University and a network of international partners. Aalto EE's mission is to build a better world through better leadership and to educate a new generation of leaders. Its strengths lie in its global operating model and versatile offering. In addition to programs in Finland and Singapore, Aalto EE offers programs in Poland, Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, and Russia. Aalto EE holds the three most respected business university accreditations, granted to only 0.4 % of world's business schools: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.
Aalto PRO
Aalto University Professional Development offers a wide selection of programmes covering areas such as product development and commercialisation, supply chain and quality management, project management, and the built environment. Primarily designed for specialists and middle managers, Aalto PRO’s offering is unique in focusing on practical skills and leveraging the latest research being carried out at Aalto University.
Small Business Center
The School of Business’ Small Business Center offers creative solutions for the development of small and medium-size enterprises and entrepreneurship covering the entire life cycle of entrepreneurship. Its main activities include continuing education, research, development programmes, innovation activities, and a business incubator and pre-incubator. Continuing education programmes are primarily intended for senior managers at SMEs, owner-entrepreneurs, and company personnel.