Maarit Toivanen

Maarit Toivanen was born in Helsinki as the youngest daughter of the family owning the Finnish building materials wholesaler , which had been set up in 1913 by her great-grandfather, Alfred Onninen. She was raised in the upmarket Ullanlinna district of Helsinki, and was privately educated, graduating from the secondary school in 1973. Following some post-secondary business studies in Finland, Toivanen went on to study economics and finance at Uppsala University in Sweden, graduating in 1978. ==Business career==

After her studies, Toivanen joined the family business, and over the years worked in various functions including sales, purchasing, product management, quality and finance. She represented the fourth generation of her family to run the business, and continued to do so until the sale of most of the group operations to Kesko in 2016 for a reported EUR 369 million. In addition to the family business, Toivanen has served in Board roles at several notable Finnish listed companies, including Neste, Itella and Rautaruukki, as well as in a number of cultural and civic organisations such as Sibelius Academy and Alvar Aalto Museum. ==Honours==

In 2008, Toivanen was granted the honorary title of by President Tarja Halonen. ==Controversies==

Toivanen caused controversy in 2014, when she announced that she would be moving her and her family's tax domicile to Portugal the following year, in preparation for the impending company sale, in order to avoid Finland's 20% inheritance tax which she considered too high. She returned to Finland in 2018. In May 2019, Toivanen was issued with a EUR 74,000 speeding ticket, for driving at in an speed limit area. The large amount is due to the Finnish 'day-fine' system whereby speeding tickets are not fixed, but depend instead on the offender's income. ==Personal life==

Maarit Toivanen has been married twice. She has two children from her first marriage. From her second marriage, to Ilkka Koivisto (m. 1994 ==References==