Vesa Annola
Professor
Fabriikki F314
Academic career
Prof. Annola has been Professor of Business Law at the University of Vaasa since 2007. He received a doctorate in law at the University of Turku 2005 (Informational imbalance and Inside Information) and a doctorate in economics (business law) at the University of Vaasa in 2003 (Dynamic Contracting). Prior to the professorship he worked in various research and teaching positions at the University of Turku and Turku School of Economics.
Commissions of Trust outside the Academic Community
Outside academia, Annola has acted as an arbitrator in both institutionalized and ad hoc procedures, and has provided numerous legal expert opinions on business law litigation. He has also worked for the commercial bank Postipankki Ltd and acted as a security specialist in financial services for both domestic and international arrangements. Annola has served as a secretary in the Drafting Committee for the Guarantee legislation, set up by the Ministry of Justice. He has also trained on the bench and thus gained sufficient experience to act as a judge in a court. He has been a recurring expert of Contract Law in the Continuing Education System of the judges organized by the Ministry of Justice. At present, Annola is the Chairman of the Supervisory Commission of Medicinal Products in Finland (Pharmacy Industry Finland, PIF) and a supplementary member of the Investment Complaint Board of the Finnish Financial Ombudsman Bureau (FINE).
Activities in the Academic Community
Annola has served as an official opponent of doctoral dissertations (University of Lapland, University of Turku), official examiner of doctoral dissertations (University of Helsinki, University of Lapland, University of Tampere, University of Turku) and official expert in nominating processes of professors (University of Helsinki, University of Tampere) at several occasions. In addition, he has given numerous opinions for universities of the competence of applicants of adjunct professorship (Helsinki, Turku, Lappeenranta, Tampere and Lapland universities).
Annola has served as a supervisor in eight doctoral dissertations, of which six as principal supervisor (contract design, finance law, banking law, company law, competition law, IPR law). At present, he has several doctoral theses to supervise (eg. contract design, banking law, competition law). At the University of Vaasa, Annola has worked in various academic positions, such as Head of the Department of Business Law, Chairman of the Board of Examinations and as a member of the Electoral Board, Faculty Council, Executive team of an Academic Unit and Committee for the nomination to the Post of Professorship. Annola is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Strategic Contracting and Negotiating (SAGE). He has acted as a national reporter in an EU financed study (Substantive Insolvency Law) led by the University of Leeds.
Research interests
Annola´s research interests focus on contracts, securities markets and banking. In addition to his doctoral theses and articles he has written monographs on Letters of Comfort, Interpretation of Contract and Guarantees. In his articles, he has dealt with, for example, regulation of rumors in the securities market, directed share issues, subjective and objective contract interpretation and contract design.