Finnair finds new CEO from Nokia Siemens Networks

Mika Vehviläinen to take over at troubled national carrier from February 2010

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The Board of Directors of Finland’s national airline Finnair has appointed Mika Vehviläinen, 48, as Finnair’s President and CEO as of February 1st 2010.
     
Vehviläinen has been employed by Nokia since 1991 - nearly his entire career, being currently Chief Operating Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks.
      ”He has strong experience of sales and marketing and of strategic management and business development in Asia, North America and Europe”, Finnair wrote in its stock exchange release on Wednesday.
     
Vehviläinen is now to transfer from Business-to-Business to Business-to-Consumer as they say in the field.
      ”What made this move so inspiring was an opportunity to learn something new. I will naturally approach the change in a humble spirit”, Vehviläinen says.
      The move also means leaving the international management of a global company in order to head the very Finnish management team of a very domestic state-owned company. Finnair has been defined as one of the strategic state-owned companies, the majority stake of which the state is never to give up.
     
”This aspect was brought up during my discussions with Finnair’s Board of Directors. I was convinced that Finnair is run like a public company. I would never have thought of joining a company where the CEO does not have full operational freedom”, Vehviläinen notes.
      His words are confirmed by Christoffer Taxell, the Chair of Finnair’s Board of Directors.
      ”I have been the Chair of the Finnair Board since 2003, and never have I encountered any restrictions resulting from the state ownership. This is best demonstrated by the fact that I have been willing to continue as the chair for so long”, he added.
     
At present, the Finnish airline is facing serious headwind problems.
      Its profitability is very poor, and none of the persons present at a media conference held on Wednesday had any idea of whether or not the company’s operations will come to a halt on Monday, when a threatened strike of Finnair’s pilots is to begin.
      However, the new President & CEO was not willing to regard Finnair as a crisis company.
     
”Finnair is recognised as a quality airline. It has an effective strategy, which has been proven in practice, and expert personnel. Finnair has all that it takes to emerge from the hard times as a winner, but this will require goal-directed development of the business practices. It will be necessary to improve competitiveness, and management and personnel will have to cooperate closely in this task”, Finnair’s stock exchange release quoted Vehviläinen as saying.
      At the media conference Vehviläinen noted further that he is not ready yet to take a stand on the question of how the company’s profitability should be improved.
     
The word ”change” was mentioned repeatedly by both Taxell and Vehviläinen.
      ”The aviation industry is encountering major difficulties and facing large changes. Mika has experience of large changes and of reaching new solutions”, said Taxell.
      ”While many prerequisites are good at Finnair, the company’s situation is challenging, calling for major changes. There is no turning back, but on the other hand, a change is also a motivating factor”, Vehviläinen concluded.
     
Vehviläinen will join Finnair on January 5th 2010. He will spend all January learning the ropes from Jukka Hienonen, Finnair’s current President & CEO, who announced his resignation in August. Hienonen is to continue as President & CEO for his entire six months’ period of notice.
     
In the aviation branch, pilots use so-called checklists in order to avoid neglecting key duties. When assuming his position as President & CEO, Mika Vehviläinen is facing a long list of important issues.
      The profitability of the airline will have to be improved significantly.
      The CEO will have to consider consider improving the structures of the company and introducing some cost-cutting measures.
     
The good relations with pilots and other personnel groups will have to be restored.
      Finnair will have to reconsider its gigantic investment programme, as the demand is declining while the company’s self-financing possibilities are losing steam.
      For the new President and CEO, the stiffest questions of the entire airline business are: safety, safety, and safety.
      Regardless of whatever kind of cost-cutting measures are to be introduced, they must not threaten aviation safety, as without safety there is nothing left for an airline.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnair´s traffic figures continued on downward trend in October (10.11.2009)
  Finnair pilots threaten strike in mid-November (2.11.2009)
  Finnair CEO Jukka Hienonen resigns; new co-determination talks imminent (7.8.2009)
  Finnair announces new drastic cost-cutting measures (8.6.2009)

Links:
  Finnair Stock Exchange Release 11.11.2009

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