On a conference call stretching across continents, the atmosphere was formal and intense. On one side, an overwhelming assembly of executives, lawyers, and investors from one of the world’s largest economies. On the other side, a small Finnish team is trying to convince them of something ambitious: that a health technology developed in Finland could help change how the world predicts and prevents chronic disease.

For Minja Salmio, it was one of those moments when everything was on the line.

Deals like this don’t happen every day. But they are the kinds of moments that define a growth company, and the leaders inside it.

Today, Minja Salmio serves as a management team member and chief commercial officer for EMEA at Nightingale Health, helping drive the health technology company’s global commercialization. In 2025, she was recognized as Future Leader of the Year at the Nordic Listed Leaders Gala, an award highlighting emerging leaders in Nordic listed companies.

A career without a plan

Salmio did not set out to become a growth leader in a global health tech company.

“I’ve never really planned my career,” she says. “I’ve always focused on giving 110 percent to whatever was in front of me.”

For 15 years, her work centered around law. As an attorney specializing in dispute resolution, she handled complex cases across industries from startups to large listed companies. Dispute resolution and a growth mindset have something in common, according to Salmio.

“In litigation, you constantly analyze what went wrong and how to fix it. That mindset is surprisingly useful when you’re running a fast-growing company.”

That background gave her something many executives lack: a deep understanding of risk, negotiation, and the many ways business decisions can fail.

But when she joined Nightingale in 2017, the role quickly expanded beyond legal as the company accelerated its international expansion, building partnerships aimed at screening populations for the risk of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, as well as heart, liver, and kidney disease.

Minja Salmio won the Future Leader award at the Nordic Listed Leaders Gala 2025. She was photographed by Eino Ansio.

Wearing six hats at once

Startups, and especially ambitious growth companies, rarely operate within neat job descriptions.

At Nightingale, Salmio built the company’s legal function from scratch. Over time, her responsibilities expanded far beyond legal affairs. She helped steer regulation, quality, information security, governance, communication, and strategic projects.

She says that the chance to take on such a wide range of responsibilities has been possible only because she was surrounded by colleagues who were willing to share knowledge generously and trust her with new challenges - something she considers a reflection of the team and the opportunities she has been given.

However, at one point, the scope of the work felt almost impossible.

“There were moments when it felt like there were too many balls in the air at the same time,” she says.

Yet the pressure itself was not the hardest part. The real challenge was focus.

In high-growth companies, everything might feel urgent, and new opportunities seem important. Leaders often find themselves pulled in multiple directions at once.

“Eventually, I realized that the situation was not sustainable. The real question becomes: what is the most important thing for the company right now?”

For her, that answer became clear: contributing to customer growth and supporting the company’s commercial progress.

The moments that define a company

Behind the scenes, Salmio played a key role in some of the most critical milestones in Nightingale’s history.

She was part of the team that raised approximately €140 million in growth funding from international investors, including partners in Japan and the United States. She also contributed to one of Finland’s fastest IPO processes, taking the company public on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in less than five months in 2021, and four years later, the company’s transition to the Main Market of Nasdaq Helsinki. 

“There are moments when it really feels like life or death for the company,” she says. “When funding closes, it’s an incredible relief, but also a reminder of how much trust investors have placed in the team.”

The negotiations themselves could be intense. International partners, large teams, and cultural differences all had to be navigated carefully.

But those experiences also shaped the company’s internal culture.

“In a small team, every person plays an essential role. When everyone is ready to help and tackle each challenge with a “whatever it takes” mindset, the impossible starts to feel within reach. Over the years, going through so much together has truly brought us close.”

The power of mission

What drives that level of commitment?

For Salmio, the answer lies in the company’s mission.

Nightingale Health is working to tackle one of the largest challenges in modern healthcare: chronic diseases. By using advanced disease risk detection technology, the company aims to enable the implementation of a preventative and outcome-based healthcare system.

Already, the technology has been used in primary healthcare on a large scale, and hundreds of thousands of individuals have received risk assessments for major diseases. Every day, biological samples are analyzed in the company’s laboratories in Finland, the UK, the US, Japan, and Singapore with the aim of creating a healthier world.

For Salmio, the significance of that work makes the effort worthwhile.

“We are trying to solve one of the biggest health problems in the world,” she says. 

That sense of purpose creates a culture that she describes with a smile as “a little bit crazy.”

“In the best way,” she adds.

Everyone in the company knows the challenge is enormous. But that shared ambition is also what binds the team together.

The youngest in the room

Many times during negotiations and international projects, Salmio notices she is the youngest in the room. But she says it has never been something she dwells on, especially since on a day-to-day basis at Nightingale, she works with a diverse team in terms of age, gender, and professional background.

Her approach is simple: focus on the substance.

“If you know the topic and you’re genuinely interested in it, people take notice. Respect comes from competence.”

Her legal background has also helped. Years in dispute resolution taught her how to structure arguments, stay calm under pressure, and defend a position clearly.