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.

No Large Cap company changed its chief executive in the first half of 2026. The demergers at UPM and Aspo have produced two new listed-CEO seats anyway — and both went to the parent's own executive, named before the board that will supervise them existed.

Two people will become chief executives of Nasdaq Helsinki-listed companies in the next five months. Neither was recruited. Neither was chosen by the board of the company they will run, because at the time they were appointed that board had not been elected and the company did not yet exist.

Tuija Suur-Hamari becomes President and CEO of WISA Group Plc when UPM's plywood demerger completes, expected on or about 31 October, with trading due to start on 2 November. Matti-Mikael Koskinen becomes CEO of ESL Shipping Group Plc when Aspo's demerger completes on 31 December, with trading expected on or about 4 January 2027

Both are internal. Both were named by the demerging parent's board. And both arrive in a market where, on the Listeds CEO Index — Finland, produced in partnership with SAM Headhunting, the largest Finnish listed companies did not appoint a single new chief executive in either quarter of the first half of 2026.

Two names, both from inside

Suur-Hamari has run UPM Plywood since 1 November 2025 at the latest, on an appointment announced on 17 April 2025. She joined UPM from Wihuri, where she had been Managing Director of Wipak Oy since 2016, and before that was President and CEO of Kotkamills Oy. Born in 1969, she holds a Master's degree in engineering from Helsinki University of Technology. WISA will be her first listed-company chief executive role, and it arrives almost exactly a year after she joined UPM.

Koskinen has been Managing Director of ESL Shipping Ltd since 1 May 2013, appointed at the age of 41 from Meriaura, where he had been Managing Director since 2007. Thirteen years in the same operating role, and the company he runs is being listed around him.

Neither is a first-time chief executive. Both are first-time listed-company chief executives, and neither reached the seat through a search.

Against a market that stopped hiring at the top

The index recorded 12 new CEO starts in the second quarter of 2026 and 25 across the first half, an annualised pace of about 50 against 44 for all of 2025. Every one of the Q2 starts happened below Large Cap: seven Small Cap, four First North, one Mid Cap. Large Cap recorded zero changes for a second consecutive quarter, a year after more than a third of that tier replaced its CEO.

Set the demerger appointments against that and the pattern is consistent rather than contrary. External hires were 50% of Q2 starts, or 60% of the ten starts that actually changed the leader. The two demerger appointments are internal promotions, the share of external hires on seats created by corporate structure so far is zero. Where boards did hire in Q2, the average age at start was about 54, roughly four years above the age at which the sitting population first took the role. A 1969 birth year puts Suur-Hamari at 56 or 57 on day one; Koskinen, 41 in March 2013, will be in his mid-fifties.

So the demerger wave is not widening the pool. It is creating seats and filling them with the profile Finnish boards were already buying.

One thing it does change: Suur-Hamari will be one of a small number of women running a Nasdaq Helsinki-listed company. Women held 8.1% of the 186 sitting CEO roles at 30 June, and one of the 25 first-half starts. The CEO index already records two women taking up CEO roles in the third quarter; WISA adds a fourth-quarter one, and it arrives by demerger rather than by succession.

Nordea's 19 August release names Group Leadership Team membership four times and leaves it out once. Asked whether the omission was deliberate, the bank confirmed to Listeds that the incoming Chief Compliance Officer will not be a member.

Nordea announced four management changes on 19 August 2026. Two fill Group Leadership Team seats in the bank's two biggest customer units. The other two lead Risk and Compliance, which merge into one function on 1 January 2027. All four leaders come from inside the bank, and none of the appointments is final: The appointments are pending regulatory approval* the release states.

Personal Banking goes to the man who ran it in Sweden for six years

Per Långsved, currently Head of Nordea Life & Pension, becomes Head of Personal Banking and a member of the Group Leadership Team on 1 November 2026. He joined Nordea in 2019 as Head of Personal Banking Sweden and Country Senior Executive and held that role until he took over Nordea Life & Pension on 1 March 2025 

So the appointment is closer to a return than a first attempt: six years running the same business in one market, then approximately eighteen months in life and pensions, now the business again across four. The scale changes even though the subject matter does not. Chief executive Frank Vang-Jensen put it in growth terms: "Per is an experienced growth driver with a strong focus on customer focus, collaboration and inspiring leadership."

He replaces Sara Mella, who is stepping down from operational roles to embark on the next phase of her career as a non-executive after seven years leading Personal Banking. "I would like to extend a warm thank you to Sara for her valuable contributions and dedication," Vang-Jensen said.

A twenty-year insider takes Business Banking, and leaves a Norwegian seat open

Randi Marjamaa, currently Head of Personal Banking Norway and Country Senior Executive, becomes Deputy Head of Business Banking and a member of the Group Leadership Team on 1 January 2027 at the latest. She joined Nordea in 2006. Twenty years of tenure carries a different signal than a recent lateral hire.

"Randi brings a strong business understanding and a dedicated Norway focus into the Group Leadership Team," Vang-Jensen said. The release names no successor in Norway. It also does not name a Head of Business Banking, or say why the unit is getting a deputy head now.

The compliance chief loses the seat

Group Risk and Group Compliance will merge on 1 January 2027, and Nordea's account is efficiency with a safeguard attached: "This will strengthen the coordination between the units, drive efficiency by leveraging shared technology and data capabilities to enhance risk oversight, while preserving the independent second-line role of Compliance". Nothing in the release explains why the merger is happening now.

Mark Kandborg, Chief Risk Officer, heads the new Group Risk & Compliance unit and continues on the Group Leadership Team. Nahale Ståhl Hallengren, currently Head of Group Financial Crime Compliance, becomes Chief Compliance Officer on the same date, reporting to the Chief Risk Officer and Head of Group Risk & Compliance, with reporting lines also to the Group CEO and the Board of Directors.

Read the two announcements together and the structural point is visible in what the release does and does not say. Jamie Graham will step down as Chief Compliance Officer and a member of the Group Leadership Team as of 31 December 2026. His successor is named as Chief Compliance Officer with reporting lines, and not as a Group Leadership Team member. 

Asked whether that was deliberate, Nordea confirmed it in a written reply to Listeds on 28 August: "Nahale Ståhl Hallengren will as Chief Compliance Officer not be a member of the Group Leadership Team. She will be reporting to the Chief Risk Officer and Head of Group Risk & Compliance, with reporting lines also to the Group CEO and the Board of Directors as regulations require." Compliance keeps the escalation route a second line of defence needs when it reports to the first. It no longer sits in the room where senior management meets.

Graham advises for three months after the merger takes effect

Graham leaves the Group Leadership Team on 31 December 2026 for family reasons and stays on as senior adviser until 31 March 2027, giving the merged function about three months of overlap across year-end reporting. "I want to thank Jamie for his broad competence and strong commitment during the past ten years," Vang-Jensen said.

Kenneth Wahlqvist leaves, Veli Taatila covers the interim, and Per Anders Quist arrives on 19 October from the agency that awarded Kreate Sverige its largest contract.

Kreate Group's subsidiary Kreate Sverige AB has appointed Per Anders Quist as chief executive officer, effective 19 October 2026. The company says the appointment is meant to support continued growth in Sweden and strengthen its position in the Nordic region, and notes that Kreate has already reached the target level set for its Swedish operations under the 2024–2027 strategy period, ahead of schedule. 

Quist joins from the Swedish Transport Administration, Trafikverket, where, according to the announcement, he was responsible for billion-scale infrastructure projects. He has more than 30 years of experience in infrastructure construction and has led major road, tunnel and other infrastructure projects in Sweden and Norway, including more than ten years at NCC in leadership roles in Norway and a board seat at NCC Norge AS. 

President and CEO Timo Vikström framed the hire around Kreate's next growth phase: "In Sweden, we have already reached a level that, a few years ago, we expected to achieve only in 2027. We intend to continue growing in the coming years. Per Anders' exceptionally broad experience in infrastructure construction from both the contractor's and the client's perspective provides him with excellent qualifications for the role. In addition, his straightforward and determined approach is a strong fit with Kreate's culture. We believe he is the right person to lead Kreate Sverige through its next phase of growth." 

Quist himself pointed to Norway as the next frontier: "Kreate has built a strong foundation for growth in Sweden. I see significant opportunities to continue growing the business in Sweden, while the Norwegian market also offers interesting opportunities. I look forward to developing our operations together with our employees and customers." The release notes Kreate currently explores Norway on a project-by-project basis and that Quist's Norwegian background supports a more permanent presence there. 

Outgoing CEO Kenneth Wahlqvist is leaving to pursue opportunities outside the company. Veli Taatila, Kreate Sverige's first CEO, will serve as interim CEO until Quist starts. 

The appointment lands on top of a record quarter

The Sweden CEO change follows weeks after Kreate's largest-ever Swedish contract and a group-wide guidance upgrade, the timing places a leadership change on top of the strongest operating momentum the unit has shown to date.

Kreate Group's April–June 2026 EBITA rose to EUR 9.3 million, or 5.0% of revenue, up from EUR 2.2 million, or 3.0% of revenue, a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter rose 152.3% to EUR 185.4 million, and the order backlog grew 215.2% to a record EUR 885.8 million. Much of that jump is acquisition-driven: KFS Finland Oy has been consolidated as a subsidiary since 1 April 2026, meaning the comparison is not like-for-like with the same quarter in 2025, when Kreate's full-year revenue was EUR 315 million. The half-year report attributes the broader growth to organizational scaling and strategic priorities including Sweden expansion, but Sweden itself, as the numbers below show, remains a small fraction of the group.Revenue for the quarter rose 152.3% to EUR 185.4 million, and the order backlog grew 215.2% to a record EUR 885.8 million. The company's half-year report linked the growth to organizational scaling and strategic priorities including Sweden expansion, and separately noted that KFS Finland Oy has been consolidated as a subsidiary since 1 April 2026.

On 16 June 2026, Kreate raised its full-year 2026 guidance to EUR 600–650 million in revenue and EUR 21–26 million in EBITA, up from a prior range of EUR 510–550 million and EUR 18–22 million, citing efficient project execution and stronger-than-expected order book development. A day after, Kreate Sverige had secured roughly SEK 320 million (about €30M) subcontract for the Lundby Tunnel renovation in Gothenburg, its largest contract to date, with Vikström saying, “We have systematically grown our business in Sweden, and the Lundby Tunnel contract is proof of our Swedish organisation’s ability to participate in increasingly larger projects based on its own special expertise. In line with our strategy, Sweden is developing into a second strong geographical pillar for the Group.”

Two releases, on 19 August. Nightingale Health spent its operating chief's role on commercial leadership ten weeks after cutting its growth target — while the finance seat stays with the founder.

Nightingale Health published two leadership releases on 19 August. Janna Ranta, chief operating officer since May 2025, became Chief Commercial Officer, Research and Healthcare. Hugh Watson, who has spent 25 years in United States laboratory diagnostics, joined from outside as Chief Commercial Officer, Americas. Both changes took effect that day. Both changes took effect that day, and the operating role Ranta leaves behind will not be filled.

Taken separately, the two releases are a busy morning in Helsinki. Taken together, they are one decision: Nightingale Health has turned an operating seat into a selling seat, at the point where it needs the Americas to start producing revenue.

The appointments move two leadership roles fully onto the commercial side

Following the appointments, two new seats now hold fully commercial roles. Suna tied the timing to a completed build phase. "In the past year, we invested heavily in refreshing our core product, the Nightingale Health Check. That work required strong operational management, and Janna had a crucial role in completing the successful product refresh. With strong data on product-market fit, I'm excited to allocate more investment to our commercial scaling, and I warmly welcome Janna to her new role."

The growth downgrade came first

Nightingale Health entered its 2025 to 2026 financial year targeting revenue growth above 50%, and restated that target in March alongside half-year revenue of EUR 2.41 million and an operating loss of EUR 8.80 million for July to December 2025. 

On 8 June it reduced the target to approximately 20%, plus or minus 5%, after roughly EUR 2 million of revenue from one project moved into the following financial year for reasons the company said were outside its control.

Suna's framing at the time was that "the reason is timing, not lost business," with revenue in the next financial year expected to exceed EUR 10 million.

Ten weeks later that framing has resource attached to it. 

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.

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.

Raisio spent 2025 preparing to grow: it sold off a loss-making plant-protein unit, set hard 2027 targets and built a standing M&A function. Then it handed the company to Elli Siltala, a food-industry veteran of around 25 years at Valio, who has said her first priority is to listen and learn before setting a direction. The plan is already built. The open question is how Raisio's new chief executive chooses to take it forward.

Raisio is a Finnish brand house. It’s worth sits in names: Benecol, brand sold on cholesterol lowering products, and Elovena, the oats brand, both marketed well beyond Finland, alongside home-market staples such as Sunnuntai baking goods, Torino pasta and Nalle cereals.

Growing a brand house means one of two things: build the brands harder, or buy new ones. Raisio's board has said, in writing, that it intends to do both, and it has spent the past eighteen months building the capacity to do the buying.

On Wednesday, 12 August 2026, the company publishes its half-year report. Elli Siltala, appointed CEO on 7 August, does not start until 1 September; until then the outgoing Pasi Flinkman holds the seat.

The board chose the tool. The CEO chose to listen

Chairman Arto Tiitinen said in the appointment release that "under Elli Siltala's leadership our ambition is to grow the company through both organic growth and acquisitions." Read against the run of Nordic CEO-change releases, that is a pointed line. Boards usually credential the incoming chief executive and gesture at a "next phase." Tiitinen named the instrument, acquisitions, and set the direction before Siltala set foot in the building.

Siltala's own words went the other way. After the standard opening, she closed on this: "My first priority will be to listen, learn and build a shared understanding of how we can create long-term value for our shareholders, customers and employees."

Across the incoming-CEO releases on Listeds Executive Intelligence database, that is unusual. Most new chief executives arrive with at least a directional theme on day one: a capability to strengthen, a strategy to keep executing, a model to scale. Siltala, in this set, is the only one to make listening itself the priority and to leave the agenda more open.