In honor of the 200th anniversary of the start of Nordic migration to North America, FinnFest will look at recent global conflicts and Nordic Europe’s alternatives to violence, both their peaceful conflict mediation and their resolution approaches, qualities embedded in the DNA of Nordic Europe and honored by the Nobel Peace Prize.  

PANELISTS
Leena-Kaisa Mikkola is the Ambassador of Finland to the United States. She started in her role in September 2024. Prior to that, she served as the Ambassador of Finland to the People’s Republic of China from 2021 to 2024.

Ambassador Mikkola is a career diplomat, and she joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 1992. She has worked with Middle Eastern and African Affairs, most recently as Finland’s Ambassador to Israel (2011–2016) and as the Director General for Africa and the Middle East (2017–2021). She has also worked at the diplomatic missions in Brussels, Canberra, Athens and Budapest. 

Born in 1962, Ambassador Mikkola is originally from Kaustinen, Finland. She holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Helsinki.

ROSS WILSON, US Ambassador (ret.)
Ross Wilson is a former diplomat and American Foreign Service officer who served abroad and in Washington for and on behalf of the United States between 1979 and 2021, including as ambassador to Azerbaijan (2000-03) and Turkey (2005-08).  He was later recalled to service to lead embassies as chargé d’affaires in Turkey (2014), Georgia (2018-2019), and Afghanistan (2020-2021).  Earlier postings included the American embassies in Moscow and Prague and consulate general in Melbourne, Australia.  Among Washington assignments, he was an aide to three secretaries of State, deputy assistant secretary responsible for relations with the states of the former Soviet Union, and chief US negotiator for the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Outside government, Ambassador Wilson was director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council, where he led work on Turkey, the former Soviet states, and regional energy and economic issues from 2010 to 2014.  He has taught international affairs and American foreign policy at George Washington University and Carleton College; served on boards and advisory councils of the Eurasia Foundation, American Voices, and the Institute of Turkish Studies; and in 2018-19 and 2022-2025 was chairman of Global Minnesota’s board of directors.

Ambassador Wilson received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and master’s degrees from Columbia University and the US National War College.  He holds memberships in the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.  He and his wife, Margo Squire, also a former American Foreign Service officer, live near Minneapolis.