Career
He was appointed the successor of Arto Räty as the chief of staff of the Finnish Ministry of Defence as of 1 January 2016. Until then he was the director general of the Resource Policy Department and Finnish National Armaments Director (National Academy of Design). The decision on the appointment came after a political dispute, and it was the cause of much debate, because the National Coalition Party and many experts on defence issues considered Räty to be the best qualified of the applicants, and Prime Minister Alexander Stubb (National Coalition Party) asked the nomination to be put on the table.
However, the decision was made by Minister of Defence Jussi Niinistö (True Finns) in favour of Juusti, and the cabinet sealed this decision.
Juusti graduated from high school from the Riihimäki combined school in 1974 and completed his studies at the School of Electrical Engineering of the Helsinki Technological University in 1979. He also completed a Master of Defence Administration from the Cranfield Institute of Technology (United Kingdom) in 1989.
He then worked at the Defence Command as an office engineer during 1979–1984 and as a lecturer at the Riihimäki Technological Institute during 1984–1987.
