Olli-Pekka Heinonen became the 8th Director General of the IB in 2021. Prior to this, he was Director General of the Finnish National Agency for Education where he worked from 2017. Mr Heinonen had an active career in politics in Finland between 1994-2002: as Minister of Education and Science (1994-1999); Minister of Transport and Communication (1999-2002) and as a Member of Parliament (1995-2002). From 2002-2012, Mr Heinonen was Director of Yle, the Finnish national public broadcasting company, before joining the Finnish Prime Minister's Office in 2012 as State Secretary. He has also been responsible, as State Secretary, for the portfolios of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development and the Ministry of Finance of Finland. He holds a Master of Laws from the University of Helsinki and has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Turku in Finland. Olli-Pekka is a Fellow of Salzburg Global.