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A joint Anniversary Class Reunion was piloted at Aalto University School of Business
The classes who started their studies at the School of Business 30, 20 and 10 years ago gathered in a festive atmosphere at the old School of Business building in Töölö.
Class reunions have been a part of alumni activities at the School of Business for decades. Active alumni have organised reunions for their own class, and the School of Business has offered help and support with the planning. In addition, Aalto University’s alumni register has been used for sending invitations and for marketing.
The oldest class of the School of Business that was still meeting in spring 2025 is the group that started their studies in 1952. An active member of the class, School's alum Onerva Vartiainen, has done excellent work in looking after the annual reunions. The reunions of this class are a very good reflection of what it is all about among those who have studied at the School of Business. Even though business students, ‘kylterit’, graduate and student life is left behind, friendships and ties between classmates are cherished throughout life.
Depending on the class, reunions have taken the form of, for example, lunch meetings or dinner events. In recent years popular places for organising class reunions have included Restaurant Arvo at the School of Business in Otaniemi and Restaurant Töölö at Aalto University Töölö, that is, the former main building of the School of Business on Runeberginkatu.
The School of Business also wants to try new things
Alumni activities at the School of Business are being continuously developed, and the School has already for some time been planning to organize Anniversary Class Reunion events. For example, in the United States such gatherings are an important part of universities’ alumni relations and fundraising, and they are held annually.
'In the fall of 2025, we were contacted by Janne Orava, an alum from the class of ’96, who asked whether his class was organizing anything the following year to mark the 30-year-anniversary from the start of their studies,' says Jonna Söderholm, Head of External Relations at the School of Business.
‘This gave us a good push to try organising first-ever Anniversary Class Reunion event at the School of Business this year and possibly start a new annual tradition. However, we wanted to organise a big celebration all at once, so we decided to invite those who started their studies 20 and 10 years ago as well,’ Söderholm continues.
Greetings from class representatives
The first joint Anniversary Class Reunion was held in the Assembly Hall of Aalto University Töölö on Friday 21 August 2026. Nearly 160 alumni from the classes of 1996, 2006 and 2016 attended, from the Töölö, Otaniemi and Mikkeli campuses.
The programme included, among other things, greetings from the Dean and KY, speeches by the classes themselves, good food and a performance by KYL. Dean Timo Korkeamäki brought greetings from Otaniemi. He said that the School of Business has grown a great deal in recent years. ‘This autumn, over one thousand new students will start at the School of Business, when all new bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and exchange students are included.’
KY’s greeting was delivered by KY's Chair of the Board Vilma Paavola and Alumni Coordinator Tatu Lehtisyrjä. They recalled landmark events from past decades, including the sale of the KY Building on Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu in 2020, which ended KY’s tie to Töölö. Of course, history and roots won’t be forgotten!
Representatives of the class '96 reminisced that even in their day one received an excellent education at the School of Business, but what mattered most from those years were the fellow business students – the community. 'Thursday club nights often stretched into the wee hours, and on Friday we reminisced about them during the lectures. Fortunately, there was no social media back then!'
The representatives of Töölö’s 2006 class still remember how the legendary Eero Kasanen, who was then serving as Rector of the School, had encouraged them to start networking already on the first day. ‘And that is what we did: we studied at the School of Business and lived at KY,’ the representatives of the class '06 recalled.
The 2006 class representatives from the Mikkeli campus reminisced how, during their studies, the first H&M clothes shop opened in Mikkeli, as well as Anttila, which has since gone bankrupt. Major events in a small town! This autumn the Bachelor’s Programme in International Business moved to Otaniemi and the School of Business’ activities in Mikkeli came to an end. ‘It is bittersweet, but in life you also have to learn to let go. The years in Mikkeli were incredible and for that a huge thank you also to the staff of the Mikkeli campus, who took care of us with a gentle yet firm touch. The best thing we took away from Mikkeli was reliable friends!’
The representatives of the youngest class, the class of 2016, continued along the same lines as the others. ‘We lived and did things together, and the good team spirit has continued all these years. It is the people who make KY what it is. A person can leave KY, but KY does not leave the person.’
Excellent feedback from participants
During the buffet dinner, traditional drinking songs were sung and the atmosphere was further lifted by performances from the Male Choir of the Student Union of the School of Business (KYL), which included, among others, Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now and PMMP’s Rusketusraidat.
The Anniversary Class Reunion received extremely positive feedback from those who took part in the event. One alum described the event as follows: ‘A brilliant event! These are exactly the kind of occasions that must be organised so that the School of Business spirit lives and flourishes also among us alumni.’
The School of Business hopes that these and other classes will continue to meet each other actively in the future as well, and is happy to provide help with planning. The concept of the Anniversary Class Reunion will also be continued in the future. ‘Next year an invitation to a similar event will be sent to everyone who started their studies in 1987, 1997, 2007 and 2017, so encouraged by the positive feedback we are expanding the event to include also those who started their studies 40 years ago,’ says Emilia Nevalainen, Alumni Relations Manager at the School of Business.
If you are an alum of Aalto University School of Business, please keep your contact details up to date in the Aalto University alumni register. For more information, you can send an email to: alumni-biz@aalto.fi
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