Markku Niskala graduated from Tampere University in 1969 and went to work for the Student Health Foundation. He was there for less than a year when he was headhunted for the position of Red Cross District Secretary for the capital city of  Finland, Helsinki. He has since pursued a career in the Red Cross which has culminated in being appointed in 2003 to be its most senior global executive – Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

I was not at all familiar with the Red Cross or its activities when I was headhunted. I knew something about the blood programme which in Finland is practically a Red Cross monopoly.

My first impression of the Helsinki District was, ‘Oh my God, what a very old fashioned organisation’. I think I got this impression because I came from the student organisation which was very up date – fully computerised which was very uncommon.

I was 25 years old. I had one young colleague, who was probably around 35, but all the other District Managers were between 55 and 60. So I was something of a revolution and of course the young people in the Red Cross liked to have me. But some of the elderly committee members saw me as a very radical young man!

The other big change for Markku at this time was meeting and later marrying Anita who then has played a key part beside him throughout his Red Cross career. But it wasn’t immediate romance, as Anita recalls

We met for the first time the day before he joined the Red Cross, but it was not until one year later that we met for the second time.

One thing that struck Markku when he joined the Red Cross was the volunteers – 40,000 active volunteers out of a total population of five million. He saw volunteers as a particularly unique feature not least because they  bridged the generational divide.

On the one hand the Red Cross has a lot of elderly volunteers, but it also has a lot of youngsters as well. There are not many places where the different generations meet together so naturally.

He also notes that in the Finnish Red Cross he found both men and women, though in different areas with, for example, most of the prison visitor volunteers women and most of the rescue teams made up of men. Markku
progressed fast, keeping up his reputation as a person to bring about change.

I was appointed National Director of Domestic Services when I was only 30 and the next youngest management group member was 56 – so I was the young radical! I came across some people  determined to defend the old systems, so I had some clashes for example in how some activities were run.

Markku was quickly caught up in working with some very senior people in Finnish  Society and quickly saw the particular effect the Red Cross with its Fundamental Principles would have.

Sometimes we’d have two or three Ministers from different political parties sitting on the Red Cross Board, but they’d never play any party politics with the Red Cross.

In fact he had some experiences where the commitment to the Red Cross was too strong:

One day one of the State Provincial Governors who was a Red Cross District Chairman suddenly became Prime Minister and he thought it would be quite ok for him to continue on the Red Cross Board! Of course this was impossible. I never expected such senior figures as this would be so interested in the Red Cross services, but they were – especially the rescue services which formed part of their civic responsibilities.

Another thing Markku found is that you have to be able to turn your hand to almost anything, an example being national broadcasting;

We were suddenly approached by Finnish TV to make a Christmas concert for an international disaster appeal we were running. They asked me to be one of the presenters on a live show! So there was a lady from the television station and me. The show lasted one and a half hours and we did it together. It’s not often that you get asked to present such a live show! Afterwards someone proposed that I could have a new career because I have such a good voice for broadcasting!

Fundraising has always played a key part in Markku’s life in the Red Cross – but one event in Finland stands out particularly.

Our biggest fundraising effort was during the Bosnia crisis. This set a fundraising record for Finland – 54 million Finnish Marks (about 10m Euro). This was achieved in just a couple of weeks. Only now with the tsunami in December 2004 has this total been surpassed. Without the media it wouldn’t have been possible to achieve these results.

More generally Markku notes:

The Secretary General has a demanding role with the media. They must always be available.

Change has meant not just leading at home but also internationally. And this even led to a change of name!

The Finnish Red Cross is the only National Society to have changed its name as part of a new communication strategy inspired by the Federation’s ‘Strategy 2010’. It is no longer the ‘Finnish Red Cross, but is now ‘The Red Cross in Finland’. It has used this change of name to be seen as more global.

But as Markku’s role in Finland grew, in 1978 he suddenly found himself in Africa!

The Federation programme for Southern Africa was looking for country representatives and they wanted to get people who were familiar with national activities to help the emergent National Societies in the region. Thus they were not looking to recruit, as is more usual, from those who have experience of international activities.

So once again Markku found himself being headhunted and asked his Secretary General what he should do. The reply was: ‘This is quite a bombshell for the organisation. I think you are the right person to go there, but on the other hand I wouldn’t like you to go now!’

Markku and Anita spent the next three years in Africa, first in Zambia then in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. It changed his perception of the Red Cross.

It was quite an experience. Only when I saw the beneficiaries and how the programmes worked did I really understand the Red Cross. Before that I had not really completed the picture. I had only seen one end of the international chain that is the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

I saw the need. Zambia at that time had only one half-time member of staff, the National Secretary. That’s all. When I left one and a half years later, there were 12 or 13 staff, including a full time Secretary General. That was quite some progress. Of course they didn’t become self sufficient during that time. The international  budget support continued. But Zambia has been one of the first National Societies in Africa to become self reliant.  In fact Zambia probably developed a little too fast. They generated revenues that initially they couldn’t fully manage.

Anita recognised what a special period this was for the countries of Southern Africa.

It was a difficult time for Zambia because it was during the independence struggle[IFRC1] . War had been declared with Southern Rhodesia and there was a daily curfew.

Given that situation, it was all the more remarkable that Markku was then posted to Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

We never thought we’d see the other side of the border. So when we found ourselves in Harare it was quite astonishing.

Working for the Red Cross in Africa not only enabled Markku to learn about the role of the Red Cross outside of Europe. He also learnt a thing or two about travelling!

When I came back from Africa I said I could write a book about being an air passenger! I was stranded so many times, sometimes without any money. The flights were always overbooked. If you didn’t reconfirm even for domestic flights then you were liable to be stranded.

The following experience is just one of many hair-raising journeys.

I was visiting Victoria on the Tanzania/Zambia border. I had a small plane to go from there to a camp on the Uganda border. On the way back I was supposed to have a connecting flight to Dar es Salaam. When we were landing at Victoria I could see my connecting flight taking off! They had sold my ticket! I had no way of contacting Anita and no money. I took a taxi to a hotel I had stayed in before and explained my predicament to the Manager. He thankfully allowed me to stay and pay later. Actually the next night there was a knock at the door and there was a transfer flight taking some small planes for maintenance at Dar. So they offered me a flight.

Markku quickly learnt to take flying in Africa in  his stride.

I never felt in danger, but sometimes some quite funny situations developed that required you to keep your nerve!

Returning to Finland at the 1982[IFRC2] , Markku was hardly going to stop playing an important international role for the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The opportunity soon arose with the organising of the Second International Peace Conference of the Red Cross, jointly hosted by the Finnish and Swedish Red Cross in September 1984.

102 countries participated, which was practically all the members at the time of the Federation.  The meeting was held during the Cold War period and nobody expected any results. It was very, very politically tense.

The Conference was about what the Red Cross and Red Crescent will do to promote peace – how the Red Cross humanitarian activities promote good relations between people of different nations.  It was incredible. It identified some small steps to take to contribute to peace.

It was as a result of organising this Conference that Markku was asked to go to Geneva to head up the Europe Department in the Federation. This was something he felt he could take in his stride after Africa.

I had no feelings about going to Geneva. After the years in Africa you have a feeling that you could live anywhere – even in Geneva!

But he and Anita did have a surprise on arrival.

We arrived in January 1985. That was the winter when in one night Geneva got 90cms of snow. The airport was closed for three days.

In 1987 at the Federation General Assembly in Rio, the then Secretary General of the Finnish Red Cross was appointed as Secretary General of the Federation. This prompted Markku and Anita to return to Helsinki where he then served as Secretary General of the Finnish Red Cross until 2003.

As Secretary General, Markku and Anita lived on site at the Red Cross headquarters. Their responsibilities included entertaining guests – up to 200 at one event – in their home. This had its bonuses but also a lot of responsibility:

I was relieved after 16 years (when we moved to Geneva) to stop living above the office!

The latest stage of Markku’s career with the Red Cross started in 2003 when he went to Geneva first as Acting General Secretary, and appointment then confimed at the General Assembly in November that year. He notes that he had always thought of a post after Secretary General of the Finnish Red Cross.

When I went back to Helsinki I made a promise that before I retired I would make one more field mission – and it turns out that mission is to Geneva.

Markku has one of the most impressive careers of service to the Red Cross and red Crescent. Yet he remains a very modest and approachable leader. He plays down his own achievements:

The Red Cross is an organisation where you need to be in the right place at the right time. And quite often I have been lucky in that respect. Also of course many times I haven’t been in the right place at the right time!