KONE is a typical example. Its chair earns €220,000 and each ordinary member €110,000. Fiskars, Hiab, Kalmar, Lumo Kodit, Orion, Qt Group, Sanoma and UPM follow the same two-to-one rule. No other ratio is as common.
Most of the remaining boards pay their chair slightly more than twice. Fifteen companies pay their chair between 2.01 and 2.49 times the member fee. Across all 32, the typical chair earns 2.23 times as much as an ordinary member.
Five boards raised fees and kept the two-to-one rule
The rule held through this year's raises. Hiab, Kalmar, Lumo Kodit, Orion and Sanoma all raised their fees in 2026 and lifted the chair and member fees together, so the chair still earns exactly twice. Orion, for example, moved from €112,000 and €56,000 to €120,000 and €60,000. Across all 32 companies, the typical ratio barely changed, from 2.20 to 2.23.
Nordea, SSAB and Telia pay their chairs the most relative to the board
Nordea's chair earns 3.8 times an ordinary member, up from 3.6 a year ago, the widest gap of any large cap. Part 1 of this series covered that move. SSAB and Telia, both Swedish companies, pay their chairs about three times the member fee.
The gap is smaller than it looks at Nordea and Telia, because their members also earn extra fees for committee work. Telia, for example, pays each audit committee member an additional SEK 215,000, about €19,800.
Metsä Board and Mandatum keep their top roles close together
At the other end, Metsä Board and Mandatum pay their chair 1.48 times the member fee, and Vaisala 1.5 times. Metsä Board and Mandatum also pay their vice chair 86% of what the chair earns, the closest the two roles come anywhere in the segment.
At most boards, the vice chair carries a much smaller premium. The typical vice chair earns about 27% more than an ordinary member, while the typical chair earns more than twice as much.
This five-part series looks at board fees at 32 Nasdaq Helsinki large caps, as set at the 2025 and 2026 annual general meetings. IQM Quantum Computers and Sensofusion, recently listed, are not included. The figures are base annual fees for the chair, vice chair and member, taken from each company’s AGM resolution release and reviewed by our data team. Committee and meeting fees are excluded. SSAB and Telia fees are converted from kronor at the European Central Bank rate on each meeting date. Every company figure links to its source.
