Pasi met his wife Kerri-Ann at a restaurant called Muddywaters in Dryden on a blind date. They were set up by mutual friends.
Pasi had moved to Dryden for work in the mid-90s, and Kerri-Ann is from there. Twelve years later, he moved back to Thunder Bay with Kerri-Ann and two children. They also went on to have two more children once they were settled in Thunder Bay. Kerri-Ann has close friends and family in Dryden, but she has embraced Thunder Bay as her home and works as the Administrative Lead for the Rapid Access Addictions Medicine Clinic (RAAM Clinic).
“She loves her job and she is a great organizer,” Pasi tells me. “She has an incredible passion for her work, and she really enjoys helping the community.”
Pasi has strong ties to Finland, having been born there and moving to Thunder Bay in 1980 with his family. He grew roots here over the years, and since then, Thunder Bay has felt like home.
“It is the Goldilocks location for me: not too big, yet not too small,” says Pasi. “It has four seasons and I can do all the things I want to do, like ski and play tennis.”
For the last three years, he has represented Finland in an official capacity as Honorary Consul in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario.
“I serve as the Honorary Consul of Finland on a volunteer basis, one of 13 such appointments in Canada and about 400 worldwide,” says Pasi. “It has opened the world to me in a new way and through it I have enjoyed serving the two countries that I love the most: Canada and Finland.”
He writes a monthly column for a regional newspaper for his hometown of Kauhajoki, where his father still lives.
I ask Pasi about his theory on why Thunder Bay has become such a hub of Finnish culture over the decades. He says it goes back 120-130 years, with Finnish immigration slowing to a trickle in the late 1960s.
“The Finnish presence has been built here over five, six, seven generations,” explains Pasi. “Finnish DNA has become ingrained in the area. The climate is similar, and there were similar traditional industries of employment that drew Finnish people to the city. They homesteaded, they worked in forestry, and then they came together to create community with immigrants from other corners of the world.”
Another important facet of Pasi’s life is tennis. He is a self-proclaimed “tennis nerd,” and he is currently project lead with the Thunder Bay Community Tennis Centre in their efforts to open an indoor 6-court tennis bubble. Despite falling short on a few of their timeline goals, the TBCTC is still very determined and optimistic about the project. The project is financially supported by all levels of government, Tennis Canada, as well as local companies and individuals.
“The funding and financing is in place to complete the project. Fundraising is continuing in order to reduce or eliminate the need for financing,” explains Pasi.”It’s all about teamwork
and patience. We will get it done!”
The tennis community in the city is vibrant, and Pasi says he sees them as his “tennis family.” He’s been playing tennis since his mid-teens with a few pauses in between, but says he’s been very active in the sport for the last several years.
Pasi’s career has seen him mostly in senior positions related to leadership, information systems, and project management. He worked with his business partner to form a new company last year called NordBEST, named for Nordic Bioeconomy Services and Technologies.
“Our focus is on the well-being of northern communities, from the best use of renewable resources, job creation, and remote healthcare diagnostics. We primarily serve First Nations communities and organizations,” explains Pasi.
“I think Thunder Bay and the area has a great deal of untapped potential,” he goes on to say. “Part of my work is to build relationships, exchange ideas and bring Finnish know how and technologies to the area. I enjoy that very much as I see a great need for thinking and managing natural resources differently. There is also a great potential to use new healthcare technologies to benefit under-serviced remote northern communities.”
With the cooler fall weather comes thoughts of a new skiing season for Pasi, and, hopefully, an indoor space to play tennis in the near future!
