Hannu Pöppönen (born in Finland in 1966) is Helsinki based design critic, writer and visiting professor. He has been working at The School of art and design in Guangdong University of technology since 2015,  giving courses and lectures from various topics and led practical and academic writing workshops.

Pöppönen has written about design and architecture for media for 30 years, and he worked for a long time for the biggest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat in Finland. He has written many books about design, for example the book Design bubbles, a critical book about Finnish design and Breaking barriers - how to succeed in creative industries in China, which was published in 2022.

Hannu Pöppönen has also worked as communication advisor in Sino Finnish 100 Challenge, which was organized by Radical Design Week Association in 2017 in Shanghai. He has been also a member in Goldreed industrial design award jury and a member of a jury of Habitare design collection in Finland 2009-2011. Collection is organized by Design museum of Finland.

Pöppönen is a member of Design organization Ornamo in Finland and has been given National Vaasa award for design journalism in Finland.