Kone CEO Antti Herlin to head Confederation of Finnish Industries EK

Antti Herlin

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Kone CEO and Chairman Antti Herlin is to become the new chairman of EK, the Confederation of Finnish Industries, from the beginning of 2007. The EK elective committee decided in its Wednesday meeting to put Herlin forward as the chairman candidate to the EK body of representatives, which will convene on November 23rd.
      In the role of the EK chairman, Herlin will follow Minister Christoffer Taxell, who has held the position since the organisation was established two years ago. At the moment, Herlin is the vice chairman of EK, as well as the chairman of Technology Industries of Finland.
      Under the EK umbrella, there are some 15,000 businesses employing around 900,000 people.
      Herlin is about to take the helm of an organisation carrying out radical structural changes. EK, which represents the entire private sector and companies of all sizes, is aiming to drastically cut down the number of its member organisations through fusions.
      When EK was established the number of its member organisations was 41. The objective is to quickly reduce this number to 12-15. The seats on the EK Board of Directors will be reduced from 70 to 20 at the beginning of the year.
      The EK Director General has been from the beginning Leif Fagernäs.
     
The appointment of Herlin is not expected to cause changes to the EK policy.
      Herlin has emphasised that Finland's competitiveness will weaken substantially in the coming years, unless new kind of thinking and flexibility are introduced in the labour market.
      "It is not a question of restraining the salary development, but improving profitability and maximising company-specific efficiency", he says.
      In Herlin's view it is also important to let go of the old-fashioned general incomes policy models and tying them to the softening of taxation. Herlin fears that Finland is rapidly losing its attractiveness as an investment market. Competitiveness is strained by indirect labour costs, unrelated social security contributions, and too harsh taxation of work.
      Herlin is also the principal owner of Kone, and is among Finland's richest men. He is said to hold stock with a market capitalisation of around EUR 2 billion.


Links:
  Confederation of Finnish Industries EK
  Kone
  Technology Industries of Finland

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