About Ohela Consulting
Ohela Consulting specialises in European Public Affairs, Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility and Negotiation Training. We help our Clients at the crux where regulation and reputation meet the corporate bottom line. Our mission is to help Clients in contributing to better regulation and in building frameworks for responsible business that will bring sustained success. We provide tools for results-driven negotiation through our world-class executive training programmes.
Our services are directed to corporations and companies, associations and the public sector, including intergovernmental organisations. We also work with other consultancies complementing their resources with our expertise. Our satisfied clients include prominent organisations such as the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK, the Finnish Forest Industries Federation FFIF and the Regional Council of South Karelia.
Ohela Consulting builds on prior personal experience from industry, European institutions and trade federations. We have seen what works in practice and what does not. Mikko Ohela, the founder of Ohela Consulting has worked for over three decades at the interface of the corporate world and the public sector on both sides of the fence - or the bridge as we rather say. We speak the language of both and can interpret in between.
On negotiation training we offer world-class programs taught by prof. Sherman D. Roberts. Prof Roberts is a pioneer who has designed and taught executive education programs at Harvard and Oxford Universities, including the Oxford Program on Negotiation.
On sustainability Ohela Consulting works in co-operation with James Griffiths & Associates Sàrl, independent sustainability advisers based in Geneva, Switzerland, focused on challenges and opportunities associated with natural resource management and use.
Our work is based on integrity and honesty. We believe this is the best and only sustainable way to promote our Clients' interests. Ohela Consulting has signed the Code of Conduct of the EU Transparency Register, the Code of Conduct of the European Public Affairs Consultancies’ Association (EPACA) and the Ethical Code of Finnish Advocacy by the Finnish Public Affairs Forum (Edunvalvontafoorumi).
Mikko Ohela
Mikko Ohela, founder of Ohela Consulting, is a public affairs and sustainability professional with over three decades of experience from industry, European institutions, trade associations and consulting.
Prior to entering consulting Mikko worked for several years in forest-based industries. He held various senior management positions at the Metsä Group, one of Europe's major forest industry groups, dealing with public and corporate affairs, sustainability, CR and communications among others. He has also worked for the European Commission in Brussels, the EFTA Surveillance Authority in Brussels and Geneva, the Confederation of Finnish Industries and economic research institutes.
Throughout his career Mikko has been active with trade associations on national, European and international level. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has honoured him with the Order of Outstanding Contributors to Sustainable Development for his long-standing work on business solutions. Mikko is a guest lecturer at the Management School of University of St Andrews, Scotland, sharing his long experience in EU affairs. He holds a M.Soc.Sc. in International Economics from the University of Helsinki and has studied also physics at the Helsinki University of Technology (Aalto University).
James Griffiths
James Griffiths operates as an independent international sustainability advisor based in Geneva, Switzerland. He works with global business and non-business groups on solving challenges and developing opportunities associated with natural resource use including sustainable supply chains, independent performance assessment, stakeholder engagement and public-private partnerships.
James has a 30 year work history in the government, business and non-government sectors primarily with an international focus, including experience as a business advocate for sustainable development (Managing Director, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva, Switzerland), trade association executive (Chief Executive, New Zealand Forest Industries Council, Wellington, New Zealand), diplomat (New Zealand Consul & Trade Commissioner, New York, NY, USA), trade negotiator (Executive Officer, Department of Trade & Industry, Wellington, New Zealand), forest products marketer (Product Manager, New Zealand Forest Products Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand), assistant lecturer (University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA) and industrial policy advisor (Department of Trade & Industry, Wellington, New Zealand).
James has degrees in Psychology, Political Science and International Relations from Victoria University (Wellington, New Zealand) and Political Science from the University of Hawaii (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA). James has been based in Geneva since 2002 and has developed extensive links with the many of the UN system and other international organizations located there. Since 2015 he has been an expert member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic & Social Policy (CEESP).
Sherman D. Roberts
Sherman Roberts has extensive experience in executive education, consulting, graduate and MBA teaching, and research on negotiation and leadership. He is the Founding Academic Director of the Oxford Programme on Negotiation (OPN) at Oxford’s Saïd Business School (SBS). He designed OPN in 2003, taught its step-by-step approach to negotiation strategy, serving as its Academic Director until 2015, teaching. An Associate Fellow, he also designed and co-directed the Oxford Programme on Investment Decision Making and taught in SBS Custom Programmes.
At Harvard’s Kennedy School (1996-2003) he was Director of Executive Seminars, where he designed and taught executive programs. The nine programs that Sherman pioneered at Harvard Kennedy School hosted over 8,000 executives during his tenure, and accounted for over 50% of executive attendances for the School. While at Harvard, Sherman founded IvyFaculty (c. 1999) with professors at Harvard, Princeton, and other Ivy League universities. Other experts joined from top universities in the US, the UK and Western Europe. This network provides high-quality on-site executive education programs for private, public and nonprofit organizations worldwide.
He was Deputy Director of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (1990-1996). He was Professor of Behavioral Science at Simón Bolívar University (1980-1988) and has taught at Carnegie Mellon, Texas A&M, the Indian School of Business, Reykjavik University, Universidad Católica de Lima, and Universidad Lead. He studied at Texas A&M, Simón Bolívar, and Harvard. He holds advanced degrees in political science and psychology. His research deals with negotiation and leadership skills. shermanroberts.com