Nordic wealth manager Evli brings in Kaisa Paatsola to scale int’l business

Momentum on gender, a standstill on nationality

Women held 33.6% of board seats on 1 January and 34.9% by 30 June — a 1.3-point gain in six months, on top of the longer climb from 28.2% in 2022. Most of that climb happened in 2025, when the share jumped 3.0 points — the largest annual move in the series, and a full year before the compliance deadline. Boards with only one woman fell from 26.2% to 21.9% of the market, while boards above the 40% mark rose from 24.0% to 27.8%. Representation is broadening beyond a single seat. Yet the count of all-male boards held flat at eight companies, all of them Small Cap or First North, and the share of women serving as chair slipped from 12.0% (22 companies) to 10.7% (20 companies) — progress in membership has not yet reached the top of the table.

Nationality diversity did not move: Finnish nationals held 77.3% of seats at both the start and end of the period. The figure has sat between 77.3% and 78.2% in every reading since 2022, and the only real move was a 0.9-point fall in the Finnish share during 2025. Internationalisation stays concentrated in a handful of large, global companies and in telecommunications, health care and energy, while industrials, technology and consumer staples remain overwhelmingly domestic. Average board age eased from 57.6 to 57.0 over the half, though boards are older than they were: the average has climbed from 55.7 in 2022, and millennial representation ticked up from 12.0% to 12.2% — renewal at the margin, not in structure.

From a single seat toward balance

The half shows continued momentum rather than a plateau, with the character of change shifting from "adding a first woman" toward "moving past a single seat." Women rose from 33.6% to 34.9% of all board seats, and the share of boards above 40% women climbed from 24.0% to 27.8%. The pace, however, has slowed: the 3.0-point gain in 2025 was more than double the 1.3 points added in H1 2026. The persistence of eight all-male boards and the dip in female chairs mark where progress has not reached: the smallest companies, and the most senior board role.

Boards with only one woman fell from 26.2% to 21.9% of companies; boards above 40% women rose from 24.0% to 27.8%. All-male boards held flat at eight companies (4.4% to 4.3% of the market). Female chairs slipped from 12.0% (22 companies) to 10.7% (20 companies).

Still stalled

Finnish nationals accounted for 77.3% of seats at both start and end of the period — no meaningful change. The figure has held between 77.3% and 78.2% in every reading since 2022; the only real move came in 2025, when the Finnish share fell from 78.2% to 77.3%. The most international industries are telecommunications (44.1% Finnish), health care (61.9%), and energy (62.5%) among market segments, Large Cap is the most international (58.4%). The most domestic industries are consumer staples (88.0%) and industrials (85.3%); among segments, Small Cap (87.8%) and First North (86.1%). Despite the continued global expansion of Finnish issuers, board internationalisation has not followed, and new listings still tend to arrive with fully domestic boards.

“Finnish listed companies are internationalising their business faster than their boards. If a company's growth comes from outside its home market, the board should include at least one director who has relevant business experience from that market. Today's digital board meeting systems make high-quality, frictionless board work possible across borders as well.”

Older over four years, marginally younger this half

Average board age eased from 57.6 to 57.0 over the half, and millennials (born 1980–1999) rose from 12.0% to 12.2% of seats. Over the full series, however, boards have aged by 1.3 years — from 55.7 at the end of 2022. Directors under 50 rose from 18.1% to 18.5%. Companies with no millennial director fell from 50.3% to 47.1% — still nearly half. Boardrooms remain anchored around directors in their late fifties.

“Diversity is measured by gender, nationality and age because those are measurable. A board's real capability, however, is a question of expertise: does the board's expertise match the tactics and the strategy the company intends to execute over the coming years. Composition is only the starting point. Diverse board work is not automatically effective, because different perspectives produce better decisions only if the way the board works lets them reach the table.”

Large Cap leads, First North lags

Large Cap companies continue to lead on gender and nationality, reaching 42.0% women by 30 June against 58.4% Finnish — the most balanced and most international segment. Small Cap posted the largest H1 gender gain of any segment (29.6% → 32.4%) and has the highest share of Finnish board members (87.8%), while First North remains the most homogeneous segment — the lowest share of women (27.5%) alongside the second-highest Finnish share (86.1%). By industry, consumer staples and technology posted the sharpest gender gains (36.1% → 40.0% and 29.5% → 32.9% respectively), and real estate remains the least gender-diverse at 25.0% women.

Gender — leaders and all-male boards, 30 June 2026

The ten highest of sixteen companies at or above 50% female representation, spanning large caps and small caps alike.

Eight companies still reported all-male boards. All of those are either First North or small cap companies.

Nationality, age and generational outliers

Companies with the lowest share of Finnish directors are not all the same case. Telia and Tallink Grupp are foreign-domiciled, where a fully non-Finnish board follows from where the company sits. Citycon is the more instructive one: a Finnish-domiciled Oyj that lost its last Finnish director inside this half, when its April AGM cut the board from ten seats to eight. Three of the eight remaining directors are tied to G City, the Israeli controlling shareholder. The board is not internationalising — it is consolidating around its owner.

Telia Company and Tallink Grupp are foreign-domiciled companies with secondary listings, included because the dataset covers Nasdaq Helsinki and First North Growth Market Finland listings regardless of country of domicile.

Even the youngest boards cluster at or above 45 — Talenom, at 40.8, is the only exception, underlining how rare a truly young board remains in the Finnish market.

Highest millennial representation

What the next reading will test

The gains ran ahead of what the rule required. Women hold 34.9% of board seats across the market and 42.0% in Large Cap, but the lowest shares sit in small caps and on First North — the segments largely outside the directive's size thresholds.

The open question is whether it continues without a deadline attached to it. Three things to watch: whether the eight all-male boards change at the 2027 AGMs, whether the female-chair share recovers the two chair positions it lost, and whether nationality moves at all after four years of essentially flat readings.

Risks 2026–2028

• A falling female-chair share suggests the pipeline into board leadership, not only membership, needs attention

• Persistently domestic boards may weigh on international competitiveness

• A director base still anchored in its late fifties poses succession questions

• Most of the four-year gender gain landed in 2025, before the deadline; the H1 2026 pace was roughly half that. Whether the trend survives the deadline is the question the next reading answers

Opportunities 2026–2028

• The 34.9% market average masks a working model: Large Cap already sits at 42.0%, so the pipeline exists — it has not reached the smaller segments

• The most international boards sit in the most international industries — telecommunications at 44.1% Finnish, Large Cap segment at 58.4%. Board composition follows the business

At a glance

Since January, SSH Communications Security has lowered its sales outlook, watched an incoming chief financial officer withdraw before her start date, and completed a tender offer on its convertible capital securities. Lars Bell's appointment as chief executive, announced 3 September and effective 1 October, is the most visible event in that sequence. It is not the first.

Read on its own, a planned CEO succession looks orderly. Read against the year behind it, it is the last announced piece of a rebuild that began eight months earlier.

The share price read it the other way round. Most of that sequence passed with barely a mark: the three CFO events moved the share −2.2%, +0.5% and −0.5%. Then, in the five sessions to 7 September, SSH's share (SSH1V, Nasdaq Helsinki) rose from EUR 1.786 to EUR 2.67, up 49.5%, on 569,004 shares against August's 403,172 across 21 sessions.

Three CFO plans, and a quarter with EBITDA negative

SSH lowered its 2025 net sales outlook on 2 January. Full-year 2025 net sales came in down 2.4%; Q1 2026 turned EBITDA negative; Q2 revenue recovered to EUR 5.7 million, up 6.8% year on year, while EBITDA was down 40.7%.

The finance seat moved three times in three months. Maria Alahuhta was appointed CFO on 2 April, her start date was brought forward to 1 October, and on 12 June SSH disclosed she would not take up the role. Cristian Arias was appointed on 7 July, starting 1 October, the same day Bell begins.