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Kimmo Hakkala, vice president of customer success at Martela Oyj, will leave the Finnish office furniture company’s group management team on June 1, 2026, extending a broader leadership reshaping underway at the Helsinki-listed company as a newly configured board settles into place.
Hakkala, who joined Martela’s management team in January 2023, will remain with the company through an agreed transition period after stepping down from the executive group. His departure removes the company’s dedicated customer-facing commercial executive at a moment when Martela is trying to convert its sustainability positioning and Workplace-as-a-Service model into more recurring customer relationships and long-term growth.
No successor has been named, leaving open whether Martela opts for continuity through an internal promotion or uses the opening to reset the commercial structure more broadly.
“I would like to thank Kimmo for his contribution to developing Martela's sales and customer success function, and I wish him success for the future,” CEO Ville Taipale said in a press release on 13 May.
Customer success function loses leadership voice
Martela, which specializes in workplace and office furniture solutions, kept customer-facing operations central during Hakkala’s tenure.
In Finland’s Työelämän Päättäjät survey of 586 business decision-makers in 2023, the company ranked first overall among office furniture suppliers for the ninth consecutive year. Martela also received leading scores in professional customer service, product quality, ergonomics, and delivery reliability, reinforcing the strategic importance of the function Hakkala oversaw. His exit now creates uncertainty around how the company maintains that commercial momentum during a period of wider leadership transition.
The move follows several management and governance changes that have gradually reshaped the company since mid-2023. Suvi-Maarit Kario joined as vice president of HR & sustainability in August 2023, followed by Henri Berg as CFO in October that year.
Board continuity meets executive turnover
At the board level, shareholders largely maintained continuity at the April 8, 2026 AGM while still reshaping leadership at the top.
Eero Martela, Hanna Mattila, Jan Mattsson, Anni Vepsäläinen, and Jacob Kragh were re-elected, while Tapio Pajuharju joined as a new board member and was immediately elected chair of the board. Vepsäläinen was confirmed as vice chair. The combination of board stability and executive turnover suggests Martela’s owners are tightening governance oversight while preparing the company for a potentially broader strategic or operational transition.
Leadership transition amid challenging operating conditions
Martela’s leadership transition is also unfolding during a significantly weaker operating period. In its January–March 2026 interim report published on May 12 , the company reported a 31.9% decline in revenue to EUR 17.5 million, while the operating result weakened to EUR -1.9 million from EUR -1.6 million a year earlier.
CEO Ville Taipale cited weakened customer demand, elevated market uncertainty, and a sharp decline in large office projects across the Nordic region. The company has accelerated efficiency measures to improve profitability and competitiveness while continuing to invest in workplace-focused product development, including its Sono meeting pod range and Maia sofa series. The softer operating environment increases the importance of maintaining stability in customer relationships and commercial execution during the management transition.
The timing matters because Martela’s strategy increasingly depends on execution in customer relationships rather than manufacturing alone. The company aims to become carbon neutral by 2035, with the largest emissions reductions expected to come not from operations, where emissions have already fallen sharply through zero-emission electricity, but from extending product lifecycles through refurbishment, reuse, and circular service models. That places commercial leadership at the center of the strategy. A prolonged gap in customer success leadership, therefore, introduces operational risk precisely when Martela needs to deepen recurring revenue and scale adoption of its circular Workplace-as-a-Service offering.
For investors and governance observers tracking Helsinki-listed companies, the question is becoming less about whether Martela has the right strategic positioning and more about whether the organization can maintain execution discipline while leadership changes continue across both the boardroom and management team.
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