About Cosmopolis » How did it start?
How did it start?
The idea of an English speaking chapter had been there for a long time. Finland, a relatively large country far up in the Northern corner of Europe had always been somehow isolated with its low population density, arctic climate and unique language but was always dependent on international trade e.g. to cover the needs of goods not produced locally. During the last decades yet another breakthrough in global business came when Finnish high tech companies' boomed.
Today there are thousands of foreign young professionals working for corporations like Nokia, UPM, Metso, Kone, ABB and F-Secure in Finland. At the same time there are thousands of young Finnish professionals, who want to work in international business. The right conditions for a new English speaking chapter with international flare are set.
How was the idea launched?
Impressed by her experience as a JCI Espoo member and the professionalism exhibited at the conferences she attended, Monica launched the idea of creating a international chapter in Helsinki Metropolitan area to meet the need of foreigners and internationally minded people willing to “be better” and build up their leadership skills. Joined by her husband and the porvoo chapter president the pioneers gathered more people to build and launch the first international chapter in Finland.
Who were the pioneers
The pioneers Monica De Leon Sanjuan , Niklas Enkvist, Mal Jargan, Alberto Delgado, Andrea Horvarth and Peggy Torres worked on the idea and got the ball rolling.
The key milestones
• Idea has “matured” during last years
• Development of the idea started in winter 2007-spring 2008
• Cosmopolis started as an extension of JCI Espoo, supported by JCI Porvoo and JCI Vantaa
– New members have joined JCI Espoo as trial members
• Cosmo Launch Party in April 2008
• Membership Meeting in June 2008
• Strategy Workshop in August 2008
• Signing of the Charter of foundation on October 1st, 2008
• First board election, -to check date-
“JCI Cosmopolis” Creation Committee was an Interim Board until the official Board was elected in early 2009
CHAIR: Niklas Enkvist
SECY: Mal Jargan, Bin Wu
LMM: Alberto Delgado, Peggy Torres, Péter Gyetvai
LIO: Peggy Torres, Mal Jargan
TREAS: Andrea Horvath
IND: Nina Hanhinen
The first critical steps in founding the new chapter were set by some foreign and internationally minded members in JCI Espoo; Jan Storgårds, Monica De Leon Sanjuan, Peggy Torres, Andi Horvath and Alberto Delgado who were quickly followed by enthusiastic JCI members from other chapters like Mal Jargan, Niklas Enkvist and Peter Gyetvai. JCI Espoo provided a crucial support in the beginning phase.
The group grew already to more than 20 potential members in April 2008 when the idea was presented in a launch event, which was a minimum for founding a new JCI Chapter. During the summer 2008 the new "chapter-to-be" faced its first setbacks as Jan , Monica and Peter left Finland, a typical setup for future operations in JCI Cosmopolis; its members are extremely mobile and globally minded, which means also they might any day find a job abroad and move to another country or continent.
Late summer the founding members "core team" decided to work on the foundation of the chapter by going though the chapters' strategy with the lead of Rasmus Nyberg from JCI Finland, using JCI Finland’s "Future chapter" strategy material. During the strategy process the team was convinced that there really is a place for a unique, English speaking chapter and the letter of foundation was signed with the lead of Niklas Enkvist in October 2008. The chapter became an official non-profit association in beginning of 2009, an official JCI Finland chapter in beginning of February 2009 and the first elected board came into effect, with Nina Hanhinen as chapter President in March 2009.
JCI Cosmopolis was finally born!
