The Nordic business council's mentorship program for 2020-2021 culminated in a final gala dinner on May 18th, 2020 at the beautiful Bussola restaurant. We got to hear some wonderful inspirational stories from both mentors and mentees, and everyone agreed that the program was a big success! The program had mentors and mentees from all four Nordic business councils.

The 6-month program was kicked off by an open call for mentors and mentees in October 2020. On November 18th the program was officially launched and the matchmaking with the mentors and mentees was made.

I joined the program as a mentor, inspired by the great experience that I had in the past from the Finnish Chamber of Commerce’s woman leaders’ mentoring program. I was assigned a mentee who had recently started her own business, and was looking for ideas and guidance on the next steps. Starting your company can be a lonely journey, and a challenging one, especially given the current situation. My mentee was very active and better at agreeing on meetings and keeping schedule than I was. We met virtually on a monthly bases and discussed the business on a general level. During the course of the program, I also invited my mentee to tell her story to our entrepreneurship students at Abu Dhabi university. The mentee’s business plan was modified during the course of the program, not necessarily because of the guidance she was given, but following accumulated experience in the market. The program overall was a great experience, even though we missed one important aspect, networking among peers, due to covid-19 restrictions. The program is open to all existing and new members of the FBC. I would recommend everyone to consider participating in the next years’ edition that will be launched in September/October time!

Petra Turkama

Chairman of the Finnish Business Council