DSocSc Lauri Holappa is the managing director of UTAK. Holappa’s 2020 PhD thesis, “The Bond-Market-Power Fallacy”, tackled the myth that the bond markets can discipline the actions of all states. He has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and as a university teacher at the University of Turku. Holappa is currently affiliated with the University of Helsinki, where he serves as a visiting researcher in the Academy of Finland-funded research project “How to overcome tendencies towards trade wars?”.

Previously, Holappa worked as an economic policy adviser to the Finnish Minister of Education Li Andersson in 2022 and 2023. He worked as a senior researcher at the think tank Demos Helsinki in 2020. Before his career in research and policymaking, Holappa worked as a columnist and as a journalist in newspapers. As of today, Holappa is a regular economic policy commentator on Finnish television, radio, and newspapers.

Holappa leads UTAK`s macroeconomic work. Since 2023, UTAK has managed to start national debates in Finland on the EU’s new fiscal rules and the impact on the Orpo government’s fiscal adjustment policy. Finance and Commerce Committees of the Finnish parliament recurrently invite Holappa to present expert statements.