The Finnish American Chamber of Commerce (FACC) - Greater Houston was founded on November 18 at the Houston City Hall. The Constituent meeting was a success as 24 active Finnish-American community members attended this historical event. The city of Houston thankfully showed their great support by offering the prestigious City Hall Rotunda  to be used as the meeting venue, and they provided all the amenities including the Finnish flag.
 
The constituent meeting was chaired by Tuija Kalpala and Mari Emaus was nominated as the meeting secretary. During the constituent meeting, the attendants agreed on Bylaws (introduced by Heikki Bergman), Membership categories and fees (introduced by Mari Emaus) as well as appointed the first Board of Directors for the new chamber. The first Board of Directors will have 11 members;  Heikki Bergman, Antti Ekqvist, Mari Emaus, Jussi Hyytinen, Tuija Kalpala, Jonas Lindqvist, Tom Lindström, Kimmo Nieminen, Liisa Price, Eija Watson and Wolf Virkki. All Directors of Board have one-year terms. 

According to the agreed Bylaws the purpose of FACC Greater Houston is to develop, encourage and foster trade, business, financial or professional interests and commercial relations between Finland and the Greater Houston area enterprises. It also promotes business and community growth and development of Finnish and Finnish-American owned businesses, and any Greater Houston based enterprise having activities in or with Finland as well as promotes programs, of civic, social, educational and cultural nature which are designed to increase awareness of the Finnish business community.

For more information, please contact us at facc@facc-houston.com