Venla is the Europe and CIS economist with Economics & Country Risk team at S&P Global Market Intelligence. In addition, she is involved in managing the Sovereign Risk service. She joined the company in March 2004. Her prior working experience includes employment at the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) in Helsinki, Finland, and at the Department for Development Assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Helsinki. She also has experience in teaching, having worked as a college professor in economics and as a teaching assistant in economics and statistics at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London (UCL), as well as an examiner for the Russian and East European Studies Program at the Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies, University of Helsinki.

She earned a Doctoral degree in economics from SSEES, UCL and a Master's degree in social sciences (economics) from the University of Helsinki. She has studied in Vienna, Austria; Saarbrücken, Germany; and Moscow, Russia. She speaks Finnish, Swedish, German, and some Russian.