Anna Franzén

Anna Franzén has been working for the Åboland Archipelago Foundation since 2018 and been part of a dynamic period of growth in both the number of projects and the amount of concrete results on several places in the archipelago.

Born and raised in Nagu, Franzén moved from home to go to college in Turku, where her love for languages led her to attend her first courses of Russian. A few choices later she ended up majoring in the Russian Language from Åbo Akademi University. After working at the Finnish Institute in St. Petersburg, Franzén moved to Helsinki, where she was in charge of developing contacts between the Hanken School of Economics and Russian universities.

It has been 14 years since Franzén returned to Nagu. The first years she spent building her own company, specialising in tailored trips to Russia. The infuriating and sad development of Russian politics from 2014 onwards gradually made it impossible for her to continue. Franzén is a person with a broad range of interests, but the well being of her home islands has always been important to her. She feels fortunate to have a job where she can make a difference for something this close to her heart. The Åboland Archipelago Foundation really makes a difference.