wfn.org | Interview with New LWF Finance Director

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Profiling 'LWF's Added Value' a Priority for New Finance Director
Funding, a Major Challenge

GENEVA, 9 July 2001 (LWI) - Mr. Pauli Rantanen, newly appointed Director for
Finance and Administration for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) says
making visible LWF's "added value" enables its member churches, related
agencies and other bodies to better determine their commitment including
funding toward the work of the worldwide communion.

Rantanen, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland underscores
that the LWF serves the entire Lutheran family. "If whatever we produce does
not have an added value, then we probably have to review some of our
priorities," he said in an interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI).

The LWF Executive Committee took the decision on Rantanen's appointment by
mail vote. He succeeds Mr. Friedrich Manske who last February left the LWF
after heading the Office for Finance and Administration for nearly nine
years. Manske, from the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Germany, moved
to the Wuppertal-based United Evangelical Mission (UEM) as Executive
Secretary for Finance, Administration and Resource Development.

Rantanen, a former head of Finance and Administration at FinnChurchAid (FCA)
considers his new job at the LWF as challenging and demanding but is
confident that he'll measure up to his new tasks considering his vast
experience in finances. A graduate of the Helsinki School of Economics and
Business Administration in 1977, at 46, he has worked in various finance and
administration posts both in Finland and abroad.

Rantanen appreciates that he is coming into an organization with a
reputation for posting balanced budgets but which like similar bodies is
currently faced with the prospect of lessening donor funds. He considers
this a "major challenge" and is well aware that one expects a lot from the
finance director. "Certainly I will do my best but that does not mean I will
fulfill each and every expectation," he said.

In his appointment as head of LWF finances he sees another opportunity to
serve "in God's kingdom," much like he did as a missionary in Thailand with
the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission and with the FCA.

Rantanen says his participation in the June 12-19 LWF Council meeting in
Geneva enabled him to have a general view of how the federation functions.
There are many things to learn, there are "difficulties and tensions too but
that is normal in a big organization like the LWF," he notes.

The new LWF finance director begins work in mid-July, just about a month
before a new associate director also takes up his post in the same
department. Mr. Daniel Bernard Johnston, 53, a British citizen, succeeds Mr.
Michel Betterman who has served the LWF for the last 19 years. Rantanen
acknowledges the implications of having two new senior staff persons in a
key function like finances but at the same time looks forward to the support
and cooperation of colleagues at all levels.

Orientation into his new job is his first priority for the first few months,
after which he plans to visit with LWF member churches and related agencies
to share emerging and ongoing financial proposals and strategies.

Rantanen is married and has one son and a daughter.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 133 member
churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5 million of the 64.3 million
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas
of common interest such as ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission
and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented does
not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units.
Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material
may be freely reproduced with acknowledgement.]

*       *       *
LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
PO Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Editor's e-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
Tel: (41.22) 791.63.54
Fax: (41.22) 791.66.30
http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Articles/EN/LWI