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In 2022, the board of Helsingin Metalliteollisuuden Piiriyhdistys (English: Helsinki Metal Industry District Association (HMPY)) decided to terminate the association and donate funds to ownership at the School of Business. Donation funds will support ownership-related teaching, research and societal impact under the endowed professorship in ownership established in 2022.

The association’s assets consisted of shares and financial assets. Anne Nurminen, chair of HMPY’s board, explains that according to the association’s statutes, the association’s funds had to be used carefully for a useful purpose relevant to the association’s activities. It was decided to allocate the association’s shares and current account assets to ownership, while all money in its scholarship account was donated through the Foundation for Aalto University Science and Technology to two student scholarships in the area of mechanical engineering.

‘The decision to allocate the money to ownership was really easy at the end,’ says Nurminen. HMPY’s members largely consisted of family businesses, for which themes related to ownership are particularly important. ‘The appreciation of entrepreneurship has increased dramatically in recent years. The same does not apply to ownership, which still seems to have slightly negative connotations in social debate, unlike, for example, in our neighbour Sweden. At the moment, little is known about ownership, which is a little strange in itself, because without ownership there is no entrepreneurship. We hope that the professorship and its field of research will provide more research-based knowledge on ownership and make it more appreciated in society,’ said the board members visiting the School of Business.

In addition to the chair, Anne Nurminen (Helkone Group Oy), the latest board included Riikka Huopanainen (Janavalo Oy), Tomi Parmasuo (Meconet Oy), Jaakko Sten (Stén & co), and Heikki Zitting (Sacotec Components Oy), all coming from a long line of family entrepreneurs.

The story of Helsingin Metalliteollisuuden Piiriyhdistys began over a hundred years ago

The story of Helsingin Metalliteollisuuden Piiriyhdistys began in 1923, when Helsingin Pienemmän Metalliteollisuuden Työnantajaliitto (English: Employer Association for Smaller Metal Industry in Helsinki) was established. Over the decades, the association was divided into and sometimes merged with other metal industry associations. As a result, its name also changed until it was established as Helsingin Metalliteollisuuden Piiriyhdistys ry in 2003.

In the past few decades, the purpose of its operations was to make the metal industry more interesting in the operating area of the association’s member companies. For decades, the association was an important networking arena for its members. Traditional meetings and anniversary celebrations brought together its members. The association also awarded travel grants to companies that wanted to internationalise and learn more by visiting different places in Europe. At most, the association consisted of around 30 member companies; the number had halved in the last years of operation.

One of the association’s most important concepts just before the coronavirus pandemic was the Luo metallista competition (English: Create from Metal), which was organised twice by the district association. In the competition, more than one hundred secondary school-aged pupils from Uusimaa, assigned in nearly 40 teams, created metal objects. The goal of the competition was to introduce students to metal work, inspire them and to increase interest in and knowledge of the field. Above all, the competition brought joy to schoolchildren. There would have been demand for the competition in the future, but as more resources would have been needed to organise it, the association decided to abandon the competition.

An honourable end after one hundred years

In recent years, the members of the association started networking in other communities and were not as interested in association activities as in the past. Consequently, the board members felt that discontinuing its operations was the right decision. The association was discontinued in December 2022, and its funds were transferred to the School of Business. This way, the operations of the 100‑year‑old association ended in an honourable manner, and its heritage continues to live in the development of Finnish ownership.