Canatu names CTO and CMO to support 2030 growth strategy

Netum Group has reorganised into four business areas, added two directors to its management team and set a 10% EBITA margin target for 2029. The structure is coherent. The test is whether a team that has turned over repeatedly since 2025 can hold still long enough to deliver.

Netum Group made three announcements on Monday morning. It put its strategy, its structure and its top team on the table. The Board approved a refined strategy with new targets for 2027 to 2029. It announced a reorganisation into four business areas, with EUR 1.4 to 1.8 million in annual cost savings. It also named the directors who will run them. Taken together, the releases do more than adjust costs. They move accountability into the business areas and add a management seat while headcount falls. They also commit Netum to a 10% EBITA margin by 2029 from a loss-making start. Netum expects 2026 revenue to fall well below the 2025 level of EUR 37.8 million and comparable EBITA to be negative. In the first half, revenue fell 25.5% and EBITA was negative at 2.4% of revenue.  

Netum says its Group Management Team “remains largely unchanged.” By head count that holds, with six of seven current members continuing. From 1 January 2027 at the latest, half of the eight-member team will be business area directors, each accountable for financial performance, personnel and capacity. Two of those four are new to the team, and Mikko Pitkänen, director of Netum Solutions, has resigned. He will not take a management role in the new organisation and will carry out separately agreed duties until his notice period ends.

The centre holds steady while every business area director starts a new role

Chief Executive Repe Harmanen, CFO Peter Ahlskog, HR and Marketing Director Liina Kangas and Sales Director Sami Rantanen keep their roles.

The change sits in delivery. Sebastian Pönkkö takes Core Systems, Integrations & Operations. The appointments have an external-origin that came in through an acquisition.Aapo Cederberg joins the team to lead Cybersecurity, Regulation & Data Protection. He founded and ran Cyberwatch Oy, which Netum bought in April 2026.  Outi Mattila will run Data, Digital & AI; she was previously Business Director of Expert Services at Buutti Oy. Liisa Rusanen will head Education Solutions & Products while continuing as CEO of Studyo Oy. Buutti and Cyberwatch will be integrated operationally into the business areas. Studyo stays a separate legal entity.

The structure is also flatter. No more than two management levels will sit between the CEO and a specialist: the business area director and the team lead, who will also deliver client work. Sales and Group Services become shared functions alongside the four areas, with capacity managed across the group. The model replaces the current split into Solutions, Expert Services and Products.

Each area has a defined job. Data, Digital & AI holds the core of Netum's AI capability. Core Systems covers systems critical to society, along with continuity services. Cybersecurity, which combines Netum's security services with Cyberwatch, is the area the strategy names for growth. Education Solutions & Products is the outlier. Through Studyo and Peppi it earns from subscriptions rather than billable hours, so its profit does not depend on how busy Netum's specialists are. 

Revenue fell EUR 6.2 million in a year. The management layer did not.

The reorganisation release explains the cause directly. Revenue was EUR 44.0 million in 2024 and EUR 37.8 million in 2025. Most of the decline came from three large customer contracts that ended in July 2025 and from weaker demand for subcontracting in specialist services. Netum says its support functions and management were "designed for a substantially larger business." 

The fix is structural rather than incremental, and the cuts follow that diagnosis. Change negotiations cover 40 employees, with 10 to 20 positions expected to go, mainly in shared functions, sales, and management, supervisory and coordination roles. Temporary layoffs are planned from this quarter. Specialists doing client work are not the target. 

Harmanen frames it as a break with the old approach: "This is no longer about an individual cost-saving measure. We are reshaping the entire organisation to align with our strategy." That is a clear break from August, when negotiations covering 30 people targeted about EUR 350,000 in savings. 

Honkarakenne has appointed HR Director Sanna Hovila as Vice President, People and Communications and a member of the Executive Group from 9 October 2026. She reports to President and CEO Magnus Hindström, and the Executive Group now has six members.

“Sanna has strong expertise and insight in personnel matters and in developing our culture. As a member of the Executive Group, she will ensure that the employee perspective is included in decisions from the very beginning and that they are communicated clearly,” said Magnus Hindström, President and CEO.

Hindström brings people and communications to the top table two months into the job

Hindström took over on 3 August, succeeding Marko Saarelainen, who moved to lead subsidiary Honka Japan. He joined from Metsä Wood, where he was vice president for Kerto LVL sales. Hovila has been HR Director at Honkarakenne since 2021 and previously worked at Atria.