Spouse of the President of the Republic of Finland
Jenni Elina Haukio was born in Pori on 7 April 1977. She attended a music class in comprehensive school, sang in a choir and studied the accordion, completing a music school certificate. She was active in athletics for many years and also coached children and adolescents.
Jenni Haukio graduated from the University of Turku with a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences in 2001. Her studies included political science, international relations, political history and economics. Haukio received her PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki in 2022. In her dissertation research, she examined parties’ strategic digital election campaigning in Finnish parliamentary elections.
Jenni Haukio began her employment career as a research assistant in the Department of Political Science at the University of Turku. She then became a Communications Officer for the Shortsea Promotion Centre Finland in the Pori unit of the Centre for Maritime Studies. She was a Parliamentary MP Assistant in Finland’s Parliament from 2003 to 2005 and Executive Director of the Satakunta district of the National Coalition Party in Pori from 2005 to 2007. From 2007 to January 2012, she was the Communications Manager of the National Coalition Party in Helsinki. Jenni Haukio was the Programme Manager of the Turku International Book Fair from 2012 to February 2022. The Turku Book Fair was awarded the best book fair event in Finland in 2016.
Since the beginning of 2019, Jenni Haukio has acted as the Chair of the Supervisory Board of the New Children’s Hospital Foundation.
She also works as a columnist at Seura and Kotiliesi magazines.
Jenni Haukio has published three collections of poetry, and her poems have also been anthologised. In 1999, her debut collection Paitasi on pujahtanut ylleni (Your shirt has slipped over me) won the national Runo-Kaarina competition. Her latest collection, Sinä kuulet sen soiton (You hear its music), was published by Savukeidas Kustannus in 2009. In 2023, Jenni Haukio published her memoir, Sinun tähtesi täällä, about her years as the President’s spouse. The book was honoured with the Literary Award of the P. E. Svinhufvud Memorial Foundation.
In 2017, to honour Finland’s 100 years as an independent nation, Haukio edited the poetry anthology Katso pohjoista taivasta – Runoja Suomesta (Look at the northern sky – Poems from Finland). This anthology was number 1 on the list of best-selling books in Finland in 2017.
Jenni Haukio’s hobbies include literature, sports, outdoor activities, photography, house plants, gardening and Finnish design. She is interested in and works to promote Finnish cultural heritage, the wellbeing of children and adolescents, equality policies, nature and the environment, animal rights, war veteran issues, and the arts.
Jenni Haukio married Sauli Niinistö in 2009. They have a son, Aaro, who was born in February 2018. The family also has a Tenterfield Terrier called Osku.
As the spouse of the President of the Republic, Haukio works actively in patronising several major organisations such as UNICEF Finland, Save the Children Finland and the Mannerheim League for Child Protection.
In 2016, Haukio invented and conceptualized the Tiny Stories campaign for international UNICEF, inviting writers from all over the world to write a short story on the theme, ‘What I want for every child’.
The Tiny Stories campaign was a huge success, gathering over 300 prominent novelists, playwrights and poets from over 52 countries in Asia, Africa, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Authors such as Paulo Coelho, Chimamanda Adichie, Christina Lamb and Nuruddin Farah wrote their stories sharing their vision of a world in which all children enjoy the right to survive and thrive.