"Finally good news in Finnish banking sector", Pertti Voutilainen, President of KOP in 1994, ahead of my move to London. Needless to say, at the time I was covering banks as a stock market reporter in Helsinki, Finland. Surely this was one of the best compliments I have received in my career as a newspaper journalist.

I have an extensive experience in London as a newspaper journalist covering stories related to business and finance; trends and life-style. I have met and interviewed many fascinating, scary, stubborn, smart , eccentric and intelligent people - many of them hard to forget.

These have included: Formula One owner Bernie Ecclestone; design "guru" and restaurant magnate Sir Terence Conran; Bank of England governor Eddie George; Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason; Lord Archer and Fidelity's legendary investment manager Anthony Bolton.

Some of my best scoops have hit the headlines around the world for different reasons. My story based on an ad-hoc interview with Hasan bin Laden created 'extra' interest because it happened to came out on September 11th (2002). The Vodafone story from my interview with Sir Christopher Gent snowballed and spread across Europe after some newspapers interpreted the story as meaning Vodafone was declaring war on Nokia.

September 11th, 2002 Kauppalehti

"Kone sells elevators to Bin Laden Group: Company denies any links to terrorist Osama bin Laden"

July 21, 2003 Kauppalehti

"Vodafone cuts buys from Nokia and gets more phones from Asia"

© 2008 Merja Myllylahti