SAK President Jarkko Eloranta: Poorer Finns cannot be a good thing for Finland

Your dream job as a child?

“In the 80s Finnish TV broadcast small information films on job choices, where a little boy said he wanted to become ”lakaisukoneenkuljettaja” – a driver of a street cleaning car. It was my dream too to work with different kinds of machines; tractors, trucks. The dream partly materialised. I now own a West German tractor from 1968. 

Your favourite tool?

“At work, as President, it is no doubt my laptop. But in my spare time it is the chainsaw. Or the axe, for a relaxing bout of wood chopping.”

Your hidden talent?

“I was good at surfing when I was younger, and I should still manage to handle the surfboard. But nothing including singing and dancing. I don’t sing drinking songs nor workers’ marches.

Which book are you reading?

Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s “Is” and Jari Sarasvuo: Välähdyksiä pimeässä ja pimeitä välähdyksiä (the book has not been translated. The author is a businessman specialising in leadership and coaching. The title means Glimmers of darkness and the darkness glimmers).