Alternate Permanent Representative of Finland to the IMO
Dr Anita Mäkinen is the Alternate Permanent Representative of Finland to the IMO. She works also as Chief advisor to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency. She covers all shipping related environmental issues and the international and regional organizations wherein these are discussed, in addition to the IMO, EU, HELCOM and the Arctic Council. Dr Mäkinen is the Chair (elect) for the IMO PPR subcommittee after serving as the Vice-Chair since 2020. In HELCOM she co-chairs the HELCOM Green Team meetings. In her position she has been member of the Finnish delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) e.g. in Paris in 2015 and the Ocean Conference in New York and Lisbon in 2017 and 2022, respectively. Before her present position, Dr Mäkinen worked as the Head of Marine Environment Protection Unit of the Finnish Transport Safety Agency and in different positions at the University of Turku. At the University she supervised Finnish and foreign students’ Master and PhD studies. Dr Anita Mäkinen graduated from the University of Turku. She wrote her doctoral thesis on marine biology at the Åbo Akademi University and holds an Adjunct Professor degree (Docent) at the University of Helsinki in the same discipline. She was awarded with the Honorary Fellowship of the World Maritime University (WMU) in 2023. Her other received Honors and Awards are: – Merit Tamandare Medal by Brazilian Navy, 2023 – Grade de Chevallier de l’ordre du Mérite Maritime by France, 2022 – Medal of the Finnish Border Guard, 2019 – Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, 2017 She is a native speaker in Finnish and additionally speaks fluently Swedish and English and some Russian language.