Hanken welcomed four new professors
Professor Mika Gabrielsson earned his Doctor of Science in Business Economics from Aalto university. He has been dean of education and professor in marketing at Hanken since 2023.
In his inaugural speech about early internationalising firms, he claimed that it does not make sense to plan ahead but rather improvise in today’s uncertain world because you don’t know what your end goal will be. According to Gabrielsson’s research the main point is connections and networks. Of the succeeding international firms hardly anyone is without connections to another multi-national company.
Professor Olli-Pekka Kauppila has a PhD in organisation and management from Aalto University School of Business. He has been programme director of the PhD programme at Hanken since 2023, and professor in management and organisation since 2025.
In Professor Kauppila’s talk around leadership he argued that the more we focus exclusively on leaders, the less we may understand leadership. According to him, if we succeed in shifting our perspective, leadership becomes less about leaders and more about creating the conditions for interdependent employees to work toward shared goals.
Professor Mrinalini Kochupillai became Doctor of Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University with a full scholarship from the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition. She was appointed professor in sustainability and business law at Hanken in 2025.
In her speech, Professor Kochupillai argued that bridging inner and outer sustainability can fundamentally transform scientific research and innovation. Drawing on Indian philosophy and quantum physics, she explained that the “observer effect” reveals how ethical disposition and cognitive conditioning shape research questions, interpretation, and ultimately legal, policy, and practical sustainability outcomes. Using the example of weed management, she showed how narrow disciplinary framings reinforce outdated paradigms and called for a reflexive, multidisciplinary, and ethically grounded approach to research and innovation in the Anthropocene.
Professor Othmar Lehner has earned his doctorate in business and economics from University of Jyväskylä. He has been with Hanken since 2020 as director of the Hanken center for Accounting, Finance and Governance, and became full professor in accounting 2025.
Accounting, Professor Lehner explained, isn’t just background numbercrunching, it actually shapes how organisations make decisions. It defines what counts as success or failure by creating the categories and numbers that guide everything from hospital efficiency to sustainability efforts. According to Lehner, as AI data and new reporting demands grow, accounting’s influence on society is becoming even stronger.
Text: Marlene Günsberg
Photo: Matilda Saarinen