Reuters Finland celebrates 30 years

Some 35 people who have worked over the years at Reuters in Finland gathered in Helsinki on Thursday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Finnish office.

It was fantastic to meet up again with old friends and colleagues, many of whom had travelled from far across Finland and the Baltic region to attend, writes Bill Pinfold who flew in from the UK for the event.

Especially pleasing was that the original team who started the operation was present, including Robert Ohman, Markku Alhopuro, Bo Geitel, Kalle Löfman and Tapio Virta, along with Geoff Sanderson who was head of Nordic Region at the time.

After gathering at a central location (yes it was a bar!), our evening started with a visit to the current office of Thomson Reuters at Tennispalatsinaukio which is located just a short walk from the original Yrjonkatu office.

Katrin Laving, account manager, Finland and Baltics, and her colleagues laid on a fine reception and showed us the latest Eikon terminal in operation. Katrin’s presentation was followed by words of thanks and reminiscence by Markku, Bo, Geoff and also Mika Schubakoff. Mika, who had already pioneered the Reuters computerised business in Finland in 1979 before the inauguration of the Reuters Finland subsidiary Reuters Suomi Oy Ab, had arranged with various others to send out invitations to the wider group and was very pleased with the high response.

Katrin’s team had a fine time ahead of our visit putting together a Reuters Helsinki museum display, with old trading equipment and some wonderful albums of photos and press cuttings over the years. There has always been a strong sense of “Reuters family” about the Helsinki office and we recollected how our good relationships with customers meant that many of them seemed like our extended family too.

The group moved to a restaurant where the memories and drinks kept flowing in significant amounts. We paused to raise a glass to our colleague Pieter Andre de la Porte, manager Finland around 1989-1992, who sadly died in a sailing accident in 2008. He was well liked and all agreed that we had been a happy crew over the years and a commercially strong unit for the company.

As was always the tradition the session lasted long into the evening, with the final few looking out across Helsinki from the Atelier Bar at the top of the tower at Hotel Torni well past the midnight hour. “Thank You” from the entire group to Markku and Mika for the event and to Thomson Reuters for the reception. Here’s to the next time! ■