1. Kimmo Leppo
Citation for Lifetime Achievement in Health Promotion
On behalf of WHO/Europe and of the Europe Day Committee of the 8th Global
Conference in Health Promotion, it is my pleasure to close this day with a
recognition to someone who is one of the founding fathers of the health
promotion movement: to Dr Kimmo Leppo, former Director General of the
Health Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland.
Kimmo Leppo graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Helsinki in
1968. He also has had thorough studies in social sciences and postgraduate
studies social medicine. His doctoral dissertation was on contraception in
Finland in the public health perspective. He holds a professor's competence in
medical sociology
Having worked in clinical practice, Kimmo Leppo early on took on a research
career in social medicine and demography, and was drawn to the Ministry into
health policy and planning in early 1970s. He retired from the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Health from the post of Director-General of the Health Department.
During his service at the Ministry, he held several key positions in Finnish health
planning, administration and policy, including innumerable government
committees, working groups and intergovernmental bodies.
It almost seems that whenever something important was happening in health
policy, whether at national, regional or global level, Kimmo Leppo was there:
• When the Strategy for primary health care and Health for All was drafted in
the 1970s, Kimmo Leppo was an executive board member of the WHO. In
the early 1980s, he was responsible for the preliminary drafting of the

2. Finnish Health for All Strategy, while he also served as an advisor for the
preparations of the European HFA Strategy. He was then in charge of the
monitoring and evaluation of the Finnish HFA Strategy in the 1990s, as well
as of its subsequent revision. In the late 1980s Dr Leppo also served as a
consultant to the WHO/EURO in health policies and planning, especially
consulting member states with their HFA policy development. In the first
International conference on health promotion in Ottawa, he chaired the Sub-
plenary on Healthy Public Policies
• When the world’s first truly comprehensive government Bill for tobacco
legislation was drafted in Finland in 1976, he was responsible for the
drafting. He was also a member of the WHO Expert advisory panel on
smoking in the 1980s, and when the FCTC process was initiated, he had been
vice chair of the executive board of the WHO instrumental in promoting the
initiative, and later chaired the intergovernmental working group on the
framework convention on tobacco.
• As regards health services, Kimmo Leppo has been in charge of the health
and social services in Finland as the Director General of health and social
services, and in that capacity has directed numerous processes on norms,
standards and best practices concerning medical services and products. On
the regional level, he has, among others, been a member of the management
board of the European medicines agency, as well as a member of several
High Level EU Committees and Groups. At the global level, he chaired the
WHO expert advisory group on health systems development and
international on the Forum for Policy-Makers and Senior Managers of
National Health Systems in early 2000s.
Dr Leppo has a unique combination of competencies and qualities:

3. • He is a top level policy-maker with the analytical skills and knowledge of a
University professor combined with an understanding of a grass root level
clinical physician.
• He is both deeply informed about the science of medicine and the role of
health services, but also profoundly immersed in improving health through
public policies across sectors.
• Kimmo Leppo is a man with a deeply rooted value base: he is
uncompromising about his values of equity, social justice and human dignity.
He has always been very committed in doing the best possible at any given
time, but is also realist in understanding what is possible at what moment,
and patient to see incremental changes in policy making. He has a strategic
mind, with a vision and a clear sense of direction. I have furthermore been
told that as a director, he was extremely steadfast in his trust and support to
his staff, and mindful for giving credit to the person doing the job, as well as
always eager to involve young professionals and steer their growth.
Having retired, Kimmo Leppo has continued a professional career both as an
international consultant, as well as author of scientific work on health policy.
This Conference has profited from his knowledge in the form of the book on
Health in All Policies, of which he is the editor in chief.
For the award, I now have the pleasure to give Kimmo an olive tree, selected by
the Europe Day Committee as a symbol of the evergreen nature of Kimmo's
contribution to public health and health promotion, and in recognition of the
consummate professional who has never retired but remains an active
inspiration for us all.