Honkarakenne CEO Marko Saarelainen to return to Honka Japan

Boreo has appointed Lassi Simola, currently Workout and Restructuring Executive at Nordea, as Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Group Management Team. He starts no later than 4 January 2027, ending an interim arrangement that has divided the finance role between two people since February.

Boreo brings back a CFO after deciding in February to manage without one

In December 2025, Boreo announced that CFO Jesse Petäjä would step down and said it had started recruiting a successor. In February 2026, it changed course and decided not to appoint a CFO for the time being. Rafael Osmanov became Head of M&A and Financing, and Vice President Finance Sami Hanerva took over financial reporting.

Once Simola starts, Hanerva will report to him in his current role. Osmanov will support the onboarding, and his contract ends by the end of March 2027.

The new CFO and the CEO both come from private equity and consulting dealmaking

Simola has more than 15 years in finance, over 10 of them in private equity, and is a CFA charterholder. Tuomas Kahri, CEO since 1 April 2026, was previously a partner at McKinsey & Company and Intera Partners. The hire is the first CFO appointment under Kahri.

“Lassi brings to Boreo strong expertise in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. He has extensive experience working with small and medium-sized companies and possesses an excellent understanding of the challenges and opportunities these businesses face,” says Tuomas Kahri, CEO of Boreo, in the press release.

Currently there appears to be a widespread feeling of rising uncertainty and a lack of a shared vision for the future. During Sweden’s recent election campaign commentators repeatedly asked where the larger visions for the country had gone. Amid promises of quick fixes and tactical positioning, the question of what society we should build seemed harder to answer. Similar examples with voices calling for a new vision have also been heard in the other Nordic countries recently. The most obvious example is perhaps Finnish Sitra that explicitly describes the need for “an inspiring new promise about the future”. 

Considering the turbulent situation in the world in the last decade, it is perhaps not surprising that we find feelings of uncertainty. It is in fact something we could expect if we apply the long-term cyclical perspective of thinkers such as Neil Howe who describes how long cycles shape the characteristics of our societies and how the change from cycle to cycle typically results in crises. Viewed through the ‘wheel of seasons’ model developed by my colleagues Mats Lindgren and Jörgen Jedbratt, our current situation may represent a transition from winter to spring, during which crises will lead to new dominant paradigms. If reality were to follow the model, this should mean that we are slowly shifting towards an increased focus on long-term perspectives and finally also a rising belief in a positive future. 

Another sign of the uncertainty is the rising interest in scenario planning. This is a well-known pattern that goes back to the oil crisis of the 1970s when Shell’s scenario planning rose to fame and it is now perhaps the most familiar tool in the foresight toolbox. There is furthermore a general acceptance of scenario planning as a relevant tool for our time, but if we want to get broad participation and support for changes the map provided by the scenarios also needs to be accompanied by something more visionary.

The Nordic effect

So, if we are approaching a period of renewal maybe it is time to start thinking about how Nordic companies and other organisations could help bring this new future into being and shape it? How can we contribute to the creation of a new vision that can guide and speed up necessary changes so that we can balance sustainability and resilience, productivity and family life, and so on? Even though there exists a joint Nordic vision for 2030 that was adopted by the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2019 this is apparently not sufficient (and to be honest, how many of you have read it? I have, but that’s more or less required as part of my job). 

Maybe it is safe to say that it is time for a new Nordic vision? And maybe this time we should start the process as soon as possible ourselves in our own organisations so that we together can create small pieces of the great puzzle that would make up a new shared vision.

For boards, this means connecting the vision to investment priorities, capabilities and partnerships, and deciding how the organisation can contribute to a wider Nordic ambition.