"Who Holds the Power? Changing Backgrounds of Board Members in Finnish State-Owned Companies, 1930s to Present"

This paper investigates the long-term evolution of ownership control in Finnish state-owned companies from the 1930s to 2020, focusing on the individuals appointed to their boards. The central assumption is that board composition reflects both the rationale and expertise linked to ownership and, more broadly, the development of management professionalization.
Empirically, the study draws on government ownership steering documents and biographical sources. These provide information on board members’ political commitments, employers, and activity in major NGOs. When available, educational data – found in biographical publications – will also be included. In addition, the dataset will be linked to an existing database on executive education in Finland from 1956 to 2007. These additions will make it possible to examine the long-term development of board members’ educational backgrounds.
The study confirms the historical connection between state-owned companies and politics while also highlighting changes noted in the literature on Western state-owned enterprises. In particular, it reveals a marked transition from political appointees to business professionals beginning in the late 1980s. This shift reflects not only a transformation in the objectives of state ownership but also a broader process of professionalization in corporate governance.
By incorporating educational background data (to be completed by the BHC meeting in London in March 2026), the paper will provide a more comprehensive view of the long-term evolution of board members’ profiles. It will make two major contributions: (1) to the literature on management education, it offers long-term evidence of how educational backgrounds developed, showing trends that can be compared with broader institutional and business environment changes; and (2) to the literature on state capitalism, it presents a new way to concretize the long-term changes in ownership steering of state-owned companies.