Henrik Meinander is a professor of History at the University of Helsinki and is the president of the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland. He is also formerly curator of Helsinki's Mannerheim Museum and head of the Finnish Institute in Stockholm. Since 2002 he is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

His many books on Finnish and Nordic history include “History of Finland”, which has been translated into sixteen languages, and “Mannerheim, Marshal of Finland”, which was award-winning in the Nordic original.