All official European Union website addresses are in the europa.eu domain.
See all EU institutions and bodies
An official website of the European Union | How do you know?
Environmental information systems
The EEA’s Executive Director, Leena Ylä-Mononen, took up post on 1 June 2023. As Executive Director, she is responsible for all operational matters and staffing issues. Ms Leena Ylä-Mononen, a Finnish national, has worked with national, European, and international environmental policy and administration for over 30 years.
Biography
EEA
Leena Ylä-Mononen is the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency.
Ms Ylä-Mononen holds a Master’s degree in environmental sciences in the Helsinki University, specialising in ecotoxicology and chemicals risk assessment and management.
Ms Leena Ylä-Mononen has worked with national, European, and international environmental policy and administration for over 30 years.
Before joining the European Environment Agency, Ms Leena Ylä-Mononen was Director General at the Ministry of the Environment of Finland. She was in charge of the Ministry’s Climate and Environmental Protection Department, dealing with environmental policy issues and EU files related to climate change, air pollution, industrial pollution abatement, circular economy, sustainable consumption and production, waste management and the prevention of environmental risks from chemicals.
Before joining the Ministry in April 2019, Ms Ylä-Mononen worked for over 11 years in management positions in the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, first as a Head of Unit and then for over eight years as one of the Directors. Before joining the then newly established ECHA in 2007, she worked in the European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment in Brussels for over five years on policy files related to chemicals and pesticides and multilateral environmental agreements related to chemicals.
The first part, over ten years, of her career she worked in the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) in Helsinki. As an environmental expert and team leader, she worked in particular on environmental risk assessment and management of industrial chemicals, biocides and pesticides.
Throughout her career, Ms Ylä-Mononen has been involved in international cooperation both at the Nordic, European, OECD and global level, and in the negotiations and implementation of multilateral environmental agreements on chemicals, waste and climate change.
Ms Ylä-Mononen was born in Pohjaslahti, Finland, in 1963. In addition to her native Finnish, she speaks fluent English and has working level skills in French and Swedish. Enjoying nature, visual arts, literature and history belong to her free-time interests. Whenever possible, she relishes berry picking and simple life in the old fishing cottage by one of the 168 000 lakes of Finland.