Sakari Puisto, 47, is an MP and City Councillor from Tampere, Finland. He has been active on many political sectors, including especially economy, migration, education as well as international issues.
By education, he is a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, with approximately 10 years of international experience. Before stepping into politics, he worked on both private sector and as a researcher in universities.
In 2014, Sakari Puisto entered as a candidate for the European Parliament, representing the Finns Party. In 2017, he was elected to the City Council of Tampere. In 2021, his mandate was renewed.
The Finnish Parliament and Government are familiar places to him. In 2015, he participated in government negotiations. Until 2017, he worked as a Special Adviser to former Minister of Employment in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland. After that, he worked as a political planner in close cooperation with the party leadership and parliamentary group. In the next parliamentary elections in 2019, he was elected to the Parliament from the electoral district of Pirkanmaa.
During his first parliamentary term 2019–2023, Sakari Puisto held the seat in the Commerce Committee and Constitutional Law Committee, and in the Foreign Affairs Committee as a deputy. He also acted as the chairman of the Finnish Delegation to the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference.
In April 2023, Sakari Puisto was elected for the second term in the Parliament with 6592 votes. In the current parliamentary season, he acts as the Chairman of the Commerce Committee, is a member of the Parliamentary Council which oversees the activities of Bank of Finland and Financial Supervisory Authority, and, continues as a deputy member in the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Sakari Puisto also has had several positions of trust. These include, for example, the supervisory board of Finnfund, Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd (2019–), and earlier the board of Finnish National Gallery (2020–2024), and the board of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (2022–2024). Besides, he chairs the inter-parliamentary friendship groups of Republic of Lithuania and Poland, and completed the 235th National Civil Defence Course in 2020.