Aatos Erkko

Aatos Erkko    (editor, publisher)
Born	16 September 1932 Helsinki, Finland
Died	5 May 2012 (Age 79)
Nationality	Finnish
Alma mater	Columbia College
Parents	• Eljas Erkko • Eugenia Violet Sutcliffe
Member of	Trilateral Commission
Relatives	Eero Erkko
Finnish multi millionaire media owner. Attended Bilderberg/1991, then used his media empire to propagandize for Finland joining the EU in the 1994 referendum.  Publisher In office 1970 - 1989 Employer Helsingin Sanomat Also owner. Bilderberger  Editor-in-chief of from 1961 to 1970 In office 1961 - 1970 Employer Helsingin Sanomat

Aatos Juho Michel Erkko was for many years the wealthiest person in Finland and directly or indirectly controlled 23.29% of the Sanoma Corporation's shares, including Helsingin Sanomat whose value on 29 July 2009 was more than €453 million.

He attended Bilderberg/1991, then used his media empire to propagandize for Finland joining the EU in the 1994 referendum. He was a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Family

Aatos Erkko was born in Helsinki. He married Jane Airola in 1959, but they did not have any children.

His father was the politician and journalist Eljas Erkko, who preceded him as editor in chief of Helsingin Sanomat, and his mother was the English-born Eugenia Violet Sutcliffe. At home, the father spoke Finnish and modern Swedish and German with Aatos and his eight-year-older sister.

Erkko's father was also the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1938 and 1939, where he badly bungled the negotiations with the Soviet Union before the Winter War ("Erkko's War").

Erkko's grandfather Eero Erkko was also a journalist and politician, best remembered as the founder of Helsingin Sanomat.

Education

Erkko received a degree in Journalism from the Columbia College of Columbia University.

Activities

Sanoma made its initial public offering in 1999, during Aatos Erkko's time as chairman of the board. Reporting news from around the world became increasingly important. Erkko founded Sanoma's own school for journalists in 1967, and Sanoma has foreign correspondents in many countries.

In the run-up to Finland's 1994 EU vote, Erkko put pro-EU advertisements on the front pages of his numerous newspapers. According to Lauri Helvee, the editor-in-chief of Kauppalehti at the time, Erkko was strongly in favour of joining the EU and Erkko made it his mission to get Finland into the EU with an advertising campaign.

Aatos Erkko was the largest single owner of Finland's largest media concern, holding just over 23% of the Sanoma stock. As one of the key parts of Sanoma, Helsingin Sanomat is the largest newspaper by circulation in the entire Nordic region. The value of his assets was in 2012 estimated as of €600 million. Ca €300 million is in international securities managed by an investment company registered in Switzerland.

This meant that most Soviet and Eastern European news stories published in Helsingin Sanomat came from the West through such papers as Life and The Times, which were then translated for a Finnish audience. In addition, Helsingin Sanomat also purchased news stories from more questionable sources, such as the Information Research Department (IRD), which was a subsection of the British Foreign Office. The IRD cooperated with the British Secret Intelligence Service and the BBC. Helsingin Sanomat also used material from the London-based American news agency Forum World Feature (FWF), which was founded by the CIA. The CIA was surprised at how much profit they made from the FWF by selling news material to Western European newspapers, including Finnish papers. The evening paper Ilta-Sanomat, owned by Sanoma Oy, was a regular customer of FWF until 1975, when it was revealed that the ‘news agency’ was an American propaganda institution. Eljas Erkko’s successor as the head of Helsingin Sanomat, his son Aatos Erkko, continued the daily’s Western-minded policy, but he also wanted to maintain good relations with President Kekkonen and the Soviet Union. Ultimately, Helsingin Sanomat established an office in Moscow in 1975, the last major Finnish news outlet of the era to do so.

CIA asset?

Aatos Erkko was listed as a CIA asset in the Robert Crowley files published by Gregory Douglas; while fitting with Erkko's general modus operandi, the Crowley files are however of very dubious quality.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1991	6 June 1991	9 June 1991	Germany Baden-Baden Steigenberger Hotel Badischer Hof	The 39th Bilderberg, 114 guests

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