9 June 1976: NIB’s first Board meeting

The bank gets a Managing Director 

The summer of 1976 was notoriously cold in Finland. Chilly winds swept over the streets of Helsinki on Wednesday 9 June, as NIB’s Board of Directors convened for the very first time. On top of the agenda was the appointment of a Managing Director for the newly established bank.

The Board’s appointment of Swedish Bert Lindström as Managing Director came as little surprise. Speculation about the candidates had been ongoing since the previous year, and as early as November 1975 the ministers for Nordic cooperation had informally asked him about his interest in the position. At the time, Lindström served as Deputy Administrator at the United Nations Development Programme, following earlier roles as CEO of Gothenburg Bank and of Swedish newspapers Dagens Industri and Expressen.

Bert Lindström’s duties were officially set to begin on 1 August. In an interview with Hufvudstadsbladet, the new Managing Director expressed confidence in his task: “I look forward to my work at NIB with great optimism. The strong Nordic cooperation bodes well for the bank, which has received a substantial start-up capital from its owners.”

He also believed that the bank’s organisation should be as lean as possible:
“We cannot have own staff for every task. NIB will therefore rely largely on external consultants and experts to carry out necessary evaluations. When recruiting permanent staff, we must take the bank’s Nordic character into account and ensure that all member countries are represented.”

Bert Lindström, interviewed in his first NIB office.

The first Board of Directors
Although the Board’s composition had been announced only a week earlier, on 1 June, the members were no strangers to the task. Most of them had already served on the Organising Committee, laying the groundwork for the bank’s operations.

The first directors were largely senior officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, finance, and commerce, alongside bankers and business representatives. Hermod Skånland, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Norway — who had worked tirelessly for the Bank’s establishment — was elected Chair, with Danish Ambassador Erling Kristiansen serving as Deputy Chair. Among the members was also Icelandic Jón Sigurðsson, Director of the National Economic Institute, who later became NIB’s longest‑serving President and CEO.

Following the selection of the Managing Director, the Board decided to employ Government Secretary Peter Laurson on an interim basis. Selected in 1975 by the Finnish Ministry of Finance to oversee the organisation of the bank, he now became one of NIB’s very first employees.

Finally, the Board decided to initiate recruitment for a Secretary to the Board and a secretary for the Managing Director.

NIB’s first home
The pioneer nibbers were housed in the bank’s first office space: nine rooms totalling 280 m², rented for one year on the third floor of Mannerheimintie 16. But already at the time of the first Board meeting in June, initial lease negotiations had begun for larger premises in a building under construction at the corner of Fabianinkatu and Eteläesplanadi.

The plan was to continue building the basic NIB organisation, with some 12–14 people during the first year.

NIB’s entrance on Mannerheimintie 16, 1976

Board of Directors meeting in NIB’s second office, 1977.