Erkki Liikanen

Biography

Erkki Liikanen became Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees in October 2018. He has been reappointed twice; his third three-year term will end on 30 September 2027.

Before taking on the role as Trustee Chair, he served two seven-year terms as governor of the Bank of Finland. Before joining the Finnish central bank, he served two terms as a commissioner at the European Commission, first for Budget and then for Enterprise and the Information Society.

Mr Liikanen has worked internationally for many years. From 2004 to 2018, he was a governor of the International Monetary Fund and a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. In 2012, Mr Liikanen chaired a group of experts set up by the European Commission to consider EU banking sector reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. The group’s recommendations are known as the ‘Liikanen report’.

His career began in 1972 when, at the age of 21, he was elected as the youngest-ever representative to the parliament of Finland. During his 18 years there, Mr Liikanen served as Finland’s minister of finance (from 1987 to 2009) and as the head of the Finnish mission to the European Union at the ministry for foreign affairs (from 1990 to 1994).

Mr Liikanen is an economist by training. He holds a masters degree in Political Science (Economics) from the University of Helsinki. He also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Technology, Finland (2003), Aalto University School of Economics, Finland (2011) and University of Eastern Finland (2019).