Kari Korhonen

Kari Korhonen was the Senior Advisor to the Secretary General at the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and led a number of institutional and policy initiatives since joining in 2013. He retired in September 2024. Since 2016, he led dedicated ESM evaluation teams to support two strategic evaluation exercises led by the independent evaluators, Ms. Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell and, later, Mr Joaquín Almunia, in their evaluation of ESM assistance programmes. He developed the ESM’s evaluation capabilities. Mr Korhonen’s research centres on efficiency, stability and sustainability aspects of financial and economic areas.

Before joining the ESM, Mr Korhonen served as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for the Nordic-Baltic constituency at the International Monetary Fund from 2010 to 2013, during the height of the global financial and euro debt crises. In addition, he gained experience in policy analysis and policy making, including in the area of crisis preparation and financial stability, while managing the Bank of Finland’s division of financial market infrastructure oversight for several years. Prior to that, he acted as head of unit in UNESCO. Mr Korhonen holds a master’s degree from Turku School of Economics.