Other appointments In Finland his roles have included memberships in the boards of several companies and other organisations, among them Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation and Technology. He has chaired the Board of the Finnish Information Society Development Centre (TIEKE). He has also acted as Chairman of the Board of Laurea University of Applied Sciences, and Chairman of the Society for Organisational Learning (SOL-Finland). Career in European Politics  He has been a member of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) since 2010 and has held a number of positions in the institution over the last five years including the 1st Vice-Chair of the EPP Group and Chair of EPP Group's Task Force on Europe 2020. In February 2015 he was elected President of the CoR for a two-and- a-half year mandate. He is currently the First Vice-President of the CoR. Over his career Markkula has published extensively and has published several books including:  His latest book, published in 2015 and co-edited by Lappalainen and Hank Kune, is called "Orchestrating Regional Innovation Ecosystems". Markku Markkula has been married since 1972. He has three children with his wife, one son and two daughters. Markkula is a lieutenant in the Finnish reserve forces.