Anne-Catherine Berner (born 16 January 1964) is a Swiss-Finnish business executive, board professional, and the former Minister of Transport and Communications. In 2015, Berner was elected Member of the Finnish Parliament from the electoral district of Uusimaa as a non-attached candidate representing the Centre Party. Berner uses Swiss German as her mother tongue within the family, and is fluent in Finnish, Swedish, German, English and French.
Anne Berner has done a long career leading Vallila Interior, a family-owned interior design company.
Before her career in the Finnish Parliament, Berner was known for leading the New Children's Hospital 2017 project and for chairing the board of the New Children's Hospital Foundation. Berner was also familiar through appearances in the television show Dragons' Den of Finland and Sweden.
Early life
Berner was born in Helsinki to a Swiss family. She was the first of four children. She spent her childhood in Helsinki and attended a German school for twelve years. Berner's background was modest, living in a small apartment and sharing the same room with her three brothers. Anne Berner had an interest in medicine at a young age when she became acquainted with the pathological institute as a summer worker. She got her apprenticeship from Zurich Medical University but returned to Finland after her mother became ill. Obligations to take care of the mother first and later to the family company, made Berner settle in Finland.
She completed a Master of Science in Economics at Hanken.
Business career
In 1986, Berner first received a fixed-term work permit to work at her family company, Vallila Silkkitehdas Osakeyhtiö. She was the ninth employee of the company, whose turnover at that time was FIM 22 million. Berner has stated that, at the beginning of her family business career, she traveled 70,000 kilometers a year to sell fabrics to architects.
In 1989 she became the managing director of Vallila Interior, succeeding her father Rudolf Berner. She became chair of the company in 2012. During her time as CEO, Vallila grew in size from about 10 people to more than 140 employees in 2014.
Vallila Interior CEO
In 1986, Anne Berner started a new project design business through Vallila Interior Contracting Oy and three years later, in 1989, she became CEO of the company at the age of 25. The parent company was renamed Vallila Interior and, under Berner's leadership, the company was given contracts for public buildings. The company carried also out decorations for cruisers, including the curtains of all cabins of the Oasis cruise ship built at STX's Turku shipyard. In 2008, Berner was responsible for furnishing the three SOK-owned hotels in St. Petersburg. In Russia, Vallila Interior has implemented hotel and restaurant projects since 1992.
In the early 2000s, Vallila's subsidiaries, Keha Oy, Decohouse Oy and Vallila Interior Contracting Oy, merged under the name of Vallila Interior. Anne Berner re-launched Vallila's textile design. Vallila launched its own textile collection in 2007, and during the 2010s, the Vallila brand became a well-known home textile brand in Finland.
The New Children's Hospital 2017
Before entering politics, Berner was best known as the public face and leader of a charity project to build a new children's hospital in Helsinki. The new children's hospital was formally scheduled for completion in 2017, in time to commemorate the centenary of Finnish independence. Berner serves on the hospital's support association, support foundation as chair from 2012 to present.
Media appearances
Berner has participated as a venture capitalist on Finland's and Sweden's versions of the television show Dragons' Den: in 2013 she participated in the Finnish version, Leijonan luola, while in 2014 she participated in the Swedish version, Draknästet.
Political career
Berner was elected into the Finnish Parliament for Uusimaa in 2015 as a nonpartisan candidate for the Centre Party of Finland. She was then appointed to the Sipilä's government, as the Minister of Transport and Communications in May 2015. Upon appointment to the government, she took the Centre Party membership. Berner's duties also included acting as the minister for Nordic Cooperation and the minister for Åland Island affairs.
Berner's political views has been described as influenced by classical liberalism, with a strong belief in the value of entrepreneurship and responsible ownership. Berner has told that she'll only serve for four years in public office—one Finnish parliament election cycle.