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.

Kokko becomes deputy CEO in December and chief executive on 1 April 2027, after five years on Arvo's board of directors. The nomination committee that selected him sits under the supervisory board, one level above that board; Arvo has not disclosed whether he keeps his seat.

On 1 September 2026, Arvo Sijoitusosuuskunta released as inside information that Teemu Kokko will become its chief executive. He starts as deputy CEO in early December 2026 and takes over on 1 April 2027.

Kokko joins from the insurance underwriter Arch Underwriters Europe Oy, where he is regional director. He has also been a member of Arvo's board of directors since 2021.

The committee sits one level up

Arvo is a cooperative. Its highest governing body is not the board of directors but the supervisory board which represents the members, has 18 to 30 seats, serves three-year terms and meets roughly three times a year. That body appoints a nomination committee from among its own members.

When Jari Pirinen announced on 8 September 2025 that he would retire in spring 2027 on turning 66, Arvo said management succession planning sat with that committee, and supervisory board chair Tuomo Tamminen said it would report on progress later.

So the body that selected Kokko is not the board Kokko sits on. It is drawn from a members' organ and answers to the members.

In a listed limited company there is no such layer. The board appoints the chief executive itself. That is the comparison for any Finnish board weighing one of its own directors as a successor: Arvo can point to a committee above the board; a listed board has to show its process instead.

Two things Arvo has not disclosed. The release does not say whether Kokko remains a member of the board of directors once he becomes deputy CEO in December or chief executive in April. Nor does it say how the board handled his candidacy, he has been a director throughout the period covered by the succession process announced in September 2025.

Arvo's board was re-elected in February 2026 and comprises Marjo Kolehmainen as chair (a director since 2018, chair since 2022), Mika Kiljala as vice chair (director since 2017), Juha Laakkonen and Kokko (both since 2021), and Titta Mantila (since 2024).

The handover runs 19 months end to end

Retirement flagged in September 2025. Successor named in September 2026. Four months as deputy chief executive from early December 2026. Handover on 1 April 2027. Pirinen then moves to special duties on the board of directors from that date, takes accrued leave, and retires on 31 May 2027.

That is a longer and more pre-committed sequence than Helsinki practice, where chief executive changes are often announced with an interim in place and a search still running.

The digital and legal appointments announced on 18 August complete a set. People, finance, digital and legal, four of nine Executive Board functions, have a new holder named in 2026. The chief executive, operating, revenue, customer and communications seats have not moved. The rebuild is running from the strongest quarter Finnair has reported, and from a general meeting that rejected the company's pay report with 90 percent of the votes represented against it.

Finnair appointed Arti Zeighami, 55, as Chief Digital Officer from 19 August 2026, and Kaarina Ståhlberg, 59, as Senior Vice President and General Counsel from 31 August 2026. Both join the Executive Board and report to CEO Turkka Kuusisto. Zeighami succeeds Antti Kleemola, who supports the handover until the end of September. Ståhlberg succeeds Sami Sarelius, who continues as an executive advisor to Finnair until the end of the year.

The two profiles do not overlap, and neither comes from aviation. Zeighami was most recently Partner and Director at Boston Consulting Group working on the scaling of artificial intelligence, and before that Chief Data and Analytics Officer at H&M Group.

Ståhlberg holds a Master of Laws, was Assistant General Counsel at Nokia and General Counsel at both Posti Group and Fortum, and sits on the boards of Finnish listed companies like Aspo, Finnair, Fiskars group, Vincit.

Four of nine functions changed. None of them touch daily commercial execution.

Finnair discloses a nine-member Executive Board covering products and customers, revenue, operations, digital services, finance and strategy, people and culture, communications, and legal affairs. Four of those have a new holder named this year.

Two of the four are already in the job. Sini Kivekäs became Chief People Officer and joined the Executive Board on 2 June, the day Kaisa Aalto-Luoto left it, four months after Finnair disclosed the departure on 19 January.

Ståhlberg starts in legal on 31 August. Finance follows on 1 November, when Jussi Siitonen becomes Chief Financial Officer in place of Pia Aaltonen-Forsell, who is leaving for the same role at Valmet.

The finance change carried a governance step. Siitonen was re-elected to the Board of Directors on 24 March and resigned from it on 24 July, the day his appointment was announced. Crossing from a non-executive seat to an executive one requires exactly that, and the board consequently runs with seven of the eight directors elected in March until the next general meeting.

The rebuild is being done from a record quarter, not a bad one

Second-quarter revenue was EUR 916.7 million, up 16.4 percent from EUR 787.7 million. The comparable operating result was EUR 78.4 million against EUR 10.3 million a year earlier, and passenger numbers rose 7.6 percent to 3.314 million.

Across the half year, revenue reached EUR 1,694.8 million from EUR 1,481.9 million, and the comparable operating result turned to EUR 77.8 million from a loss of EUR 52.3 million. The first quarter had already improved, with revenue up 12.1 percent to EUR 778.1 million and a comparable operating result of EUR -0.6 million.

Finnair raised its 2026 outlook on 22 July to revenue of EUR 3.4 to 3.5 billion and a comparable operating result of EUR 120 to 190 million, assuming no material disruption to fuel availability. Kuusisto called the quarterly figure "a record-high 78.4 million euros", which is the company's characterisation of its own result. July passenger volume rose 9.3 percent year on year.

Enabling functions are often rebuilt after a shock. These are being rebuilt while the numbers improve.

Boards were quieter than at any point since the spring meetings. The month's only board departure happened because a director took a finance job.

According to Listeds data, Nordic listed companies recorded 30 board and management changes in July, down from 69 in June. Boards accounted for 2 — one appointment and one departure, against 18 recorded in June. Management teams recorded 28: 8 appointments, 16 departures, four role changes, nearly half of June's 51.

The drop is seasonal. What sits underneath it is not.

On 24 July, Finnair announced that Pia Aaltonen-Forsell was leaving as finance chief and that Jussi Siitonen would take the role from 1 November. On the same day, Valmet named Aaltonen-Forsell as its own next CFO, starting at the latest at the end of January 2027.One move, disclosed from both ends, three minutes apart.

Follow it in both directions and five Helsinki-listed companies sit on the same line.

Fiskars Group disclosed on 24 June that Siitonen, its CFO and deputy to the chief executive, would leave after August. Niko Haavisto, previously CFO at Nokian Tyres and CapMan, took the Fiskars finance role on 10 August. Siitonen went to Finnair on 1 November, and resigned from Finnair's board on 24 July to take it. Aaltonen-Forsell goes to Valmet, replacing Katri Hokkanen, who leaves at the end of September after nearly four years in the role and close to twenty years at the company. Hokkanen goes to Kalmar on 1 October, replacing Sakari Ahdekivi, who steps down on 30 September and stays in a transition role to 31 December. Ahdekivi is now among the proposed board members of WISA Group, the plywood business UPM is demerging.

Election to the WISA Group board is conditional on UPM's extraordinary general meeting of 31 August 2026 and completion of the demerger is expected on or about 31 October 2026.
Sources: company stock exchange releases, 24 June - 7 August 2026

Five companies. Four finance vacancies, each filled from another listed company — and the chain ends at a board seat.

“There is no shortage of Finnish finance chiefs. There is just a short list, and every board most likely knows who is on it.”

The disclosure sequence is worth noting on its own. Fiskars named Siitonen's exit on 24 June; Finnair named his destination on 24 July. A departing company discloses the vacancy roughly a month before the hiring company discloses the hire. Under the Nasdaq Helsinki inside-information regime that is the system working as intended, and it means the market reads a single move in two instalments — usually without knowing, at the first instalment, which company is at the other end. August and completion of the demerger is

Kimmo Kärkkäinen will take over as Digia's CFO by February 2027 at the latest, arriving from Vincit's finance seat. It is the second time since 2017 that Digia has filled its CFO role with a sitting CFO from another Nasdaq Helsinki company, a pattern Listeds examines across the wider market in a companion piece.

Digia has appointed Kimmo Kärkkäinen (b. 1972) as Chief Financial Officer and a member of the management team, effective by February 2027 at the latest, reporting to President and CEO Timo Levoranta. Kärkkäinen joins from Vincit, where he is currently CFO, and has previously held CFO roles at Fira Group and leadership positions at Sitedrive Oy, private-equity firm Bocap, Affecto Plc, and TeliaSonera.

He succeeds Kristiina Simola, who announced on 21 April 2026 that she would step down to pursue a board career after serving as Digia's CFO since 2017. Simola remains in post through the transition, with an outside date of end-October 2026.

Vincit has confirmed Kärkkäinen's resignation "to join another company," with him continuing in role during a transition period until the beginning of November 2026 at the latest while it recruits a successor. CEO Julius Manni thanked him for developing the company's processes and leadership culture.

On the appointment, Kärkkäinen said: "Digia has made an impressive journey as a profitable growth company, and it has a strong position in the Finnish software and services market. I am excited to join Digia in building its next phase. As Chief Financial Officer, I want to support the implementation of the strategy and the growth of shareholder value together with a skilled team.”

Levoranta cited Kärkkäinen’s “strong experience in financial management and business development,” as well as his experience in mergers and acquisitions and in building growth companies and new businesses.

Bioretec has appointed Panu Mikkonen as chief financial officer from 6 October 2026, the fourth person to be named to the role since September 2025.

The appointment itself is quite routine. What stands out is the pattern around it: of roughly 400 management-team changes at Finnish listed companies that Listeds has tracked so far in 2026, Bioretec's finance function stands out for cycling through four CFOs (two of them interim) in just over a year, a pace uncommon for the role.

How the CFO role changed hands

Anne-Mari Matikainen took over as interim CFO with immediate effect on September 15, 2025, while outgoing CFO Johanna Salko stayed on to support the transition until her departure on November 30, 2025. Tuukka Paavola became permanent CFO on January 20, 2026, but Bioretec disclosed his departure barely six months later, on July 2, 2026. Anna-Mari Venola stepped in as interim CFO the same week to bridge to Mikkonen. Mikkonen is the fourth person to hold or be named CFO in roughly 13 months.

Frequent leadership changes cut two ways. Rapid turnover carries a cost of its own, in lost continuity and institutional memory, but replacing a poor fit quickly can equally signal decisiveness.

Two of the four moves were interim appointments, the usual way a company covers a gap while it searches, not four permanent hires that failed. Interim finance chiefs are in many cases also confirmed in the job later, though at Bioretec neither was made permanent.

All four CFO changes have unfolded under a single chief executive, Sarah van Hellenberg Hubar-Fisher, who became CEO after serving an interim position since May 2025, only in August 2025, weeks before the first of them; new chief executives often rebuild the finance function around themselves, and some of the turnover may reflect that. Bioretec has not disclosed the reasons behind each departure.

Sampo Immonen, head of research and development for Valmet's paper and board machines business, will join Spinnova Plc as chief technology officer no later than Oct. 1, 2026, as the Finnish textile-fiber company reshapes its technology leadership while working to restart production and prepare for industrial-scale manufacturing following a difficult 2025.

Immonen will join the management team and report to CEO Janne Poranen, while longtime CTO Juha Salmela moves into the newly created role of chief technology strategy and innovation officer, remaining on the management team, the sustainable fiber pioneer announced recently. The new roles divide responsibility between industrial-scale operations and future technology development.

Founded in 2009, Spinnova develops patented technology for producing textile fiber from wood pulp and waste materials without harmful chemicals or dissolving. The technology originated from research by Juha Salmela at VTT inspired by the way spiders spin silk. The company has already collaborated with brands including The North Face, Puma, Bestseller, H&M Group, Adidas, Ecco and Marimekko. 

Spinnova has been reshaping its leadership throughout 2026 while advancing its production restart plans. Immonen's appointment follows Chief Commercial Officer Mikko Lassila's arrival in April and comes less than two weeks after the company announced Chief Product and Sustainability Officer Shahriare Mahmood would leave in October after five years on the management team, as reported by Listeds earlier.

CEO Janne Poranen said Immonen will help support the company's industrial-scale ambitions. "Sampo is an excellent addition to our team and will play an important role in the company's development and in scaling our technology to industrial scale." 

Immonen joins after more than 14 years at Valmet, where he held a series of technology and R&D leadership roles, most recently heading R&D for the paper and board machines business. His experience spans technology portfolio management, strategic partnerships, piloting and new business development. He said his fiber-industry experience and professional network would help create value for Spinnova and support the company's next stage of development.

Technology leadership split reflects changing responsibilities

The new structure separates responsibility for operating Spinnova's current technology from developing its future technology platform. As CTO, Immonen will oversee industrial-scale technology operations, while Salmela—whose research formed the basis of Spinnova's fiber technology—will concentrate on future technologies, intellectual property and strategic opportunities.

The appointment is the third management team change Spinnova has disclosed this year. As of Oct. 1, the management team will comprise CEO Janne Poranen, CFO and People Officer Santeri Heinonen, CTO Sampo Immonen, CMO Mikko Lassila, Chief Product and Sustainability Officer Shahriare Mahmood until Oct. 20, CTSIO Juha Salmela and General Counsel Johanna Valkama. Mahmood's departure leaves the product and sustainability portfolio without a long-term leader.

The management changes come after a challenging 2025, when Spinnova’s revenue declined almost 55% to EUR 344,000, and operating loss more than doubled to EUR 41.3 million, partly because of an EUR 18.4 million impairment related to the Woodspin joint venture. Since then, Spinnova has focused on preparing to restart production at the Woodspin demonstration facility in Jyväskylä while broadening the commercial network supporting its fiber technology. 

Unlike the management team, the board has remained largely unchanged. At the April 2026 AGM, shareholders re-elected the board and authorized a share issuance. More recently, Pirkka Palomäki replaced Ilkka Kivimäki on the shareholders' nomination board, the body responsible for proposing future board candidates, ahead of the 2027 AGM cycle. 

New role follows reorganization of Neste's fastest-growing business

Elim Yeoh, vice president, Biofuels Growth Americas at oil and gas giant BP, will join Neste as president, Renewable Products, North America on Sept. 1, 2026, to lead the Finnish company's new North American business unit as Neste strengthens executive oversight of Renewable Products, one of its two largest operating businesses.

Yeoh will oversee the North American business unit, including commercial operations, feedstock sourcing and the Martinez Renewables joint venture, while reporting to President and CEO Heikki Malinen, the world's leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel announced recently.

The position has been held on an interim basis by SVP Carl Nyberg since April, when Neste established the regional business unit as part of a broader reorganization of its renewable products business that the company said was designed to accelerate value creation.

New structure puts greater emphasis on renewables

Renewable Products, which produces renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, delivered Neste's strongest earnings growth in 2025, with comparable EBITDA rising nearly 49% to EUR 764 million, making it one of the company's two largest operating segments alongside Oil Products.

Against that backdrop, North America remained Neste’s second-largest market for Renewable Diesel and SAF in 2025, accounting for 28% of sales volumes, compared with 72% in Europe.

Reflecting the segment's growing significance, Neste established the Renewable Products, North America business unit to oversee regional commercial operations, feedstock sourcing and the Martinez Renewables joint venture with Marathon Petroleum. The company said the new structure will support long-term growth without altering its financial reporting structure.

BP executive brings more than two decades of industry experience

Yeoh brings more than 20 years of leadership experience across the downstream, midstream and renewable fuels sectors. At BP, she led biofuels growth across the Americas, focusing on commercial partnerships and business development. Before joining the London-headquartered multinational, she held leadership positions at Chevron spanning refining, chemicals and renewable fuels.

President and CEO Heikki Malinen highlighted Yeoh's track record and industry experience, adding that: "This will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen our regional presence and drive the growth of our Renewable Products business in North America."