Anneli Taina
Anelli Taina in 1988
Governor of the Southern Finland Province
In office 2004–2009
President	Tarja Halonen
Prime Minister	Matti Vanhanen
Preceded by	Tuula Linnainmaa
Minister of Defence [1]
In office 13 April 1995 – 15 April 1999
Prime Minister	Paavo Lipponen
Preceded by	Jan-Erik Enestam
Succeeded by	Jan-Erik Enestam
Minister of Housing
In office 2 January 1995 – 13 April 1995
Prime Minister	Paavo Lipponen
Preceded by	Pirjo Rusanen
Succeeded by	Jan Vapaavuori
Member of the Finnish Parliament
In office 21 March 1987 – 23 March 1999
Constituency	Pirkanmaa
Personal details
Born	(1951-06-21) 21 June 1951 (age 72) Imatra, Finland
Spouse	Heikki Taina (1972-present)

Anneli Taina (born June 21, 1951) is a Finnish politician who was Minister of Defence and Minister of Housing for the Finnish Government, and then Governor of the Southern Finland Province.

Career

Anneli Taina was born on June 21, 1951, in Imatra, Finland, which is located on the border with Russia in the east of the country. She trained in social work, earning a Master's degree in social studies in 1975. She then worked for ten years between 1977 and 1987 as a social worker in Tampere, Southern Finland. During this time, she won a seat on the Tampere City Council, and was a school board member. as part of her council role, she sat on the Urban Planning Committee. ^[2]

In 1987, she successfully ran to become a Member of Parliament. Taina then set on several committees such as the Social Affairs and Health Committee, Labour, and the Grand Committee. In 1995, she was named to the Council of State as Minister of Housing, later that year being moved to become Minister of Defence. ^[2] This was only the second time that a woman had been named as a Minister of Defence in Finland, after Elisabeth Rehn, who held the post earlier in 1995. ^[3]

Taina held the position until 1999, and continued as a Member of Parliament until 1999. She then became Governor of the Southern Finland Province in 2004, a position she held until 2009, when she became Senior Vice President of the Regional Development Agency of Southern Finland until retirement in 2014. ^[2]

References