Interview with Valmet's future President and CEO Thomas Hinnerskov

Yes, yeah, thank you very much. It's a pleasure. I'm looking very much forward to start.

Um, I think Valmet – if you just look at the purpose of Valmet or the mission of Valmet, 'converting renewable resources into sustainable results' – I think that's a fantastic purpose, and it's definitely something that the world needs now more than ever. So I think it's, I couldn't think of anything better to get up in the morning to actually help do that. So that's one. And of course it's an amazing legacy that Valmet has, in particular here in Finland. So, yeah, very happy to join and be part of that journey, the future journey.

First of all, I think having lived in six countries across three continents has been very important for me also in my personal development, but definitely in my leadership development – sort of understanding different cultures, how they work, both from a people perspective and from a business dynamics perspective. If I should mention certain roles, I would say heading up Asia Pacific for ISS with more than 200,000 employees under my responsibility was an amazing thing, basically because you took people, you recruited them out of poverty and gave them training. The more talent they have, the more training you gave them, the more they progressed, meant that they could create a completely different life for themselves and their families. And that's also why purpose is such a big thing for me – that we do something that actually benefits society while at the same time giving a return to shareholders. Then changing to Cargotec, which is another amazing Finnish company, was one of the most innovative companies in the world when I joined. It was just the same passion but for different things, and it was also an amazing journey and transformation that Cargotec was on and still is on, but also at the same time taking care of customers and their end users, which creates a special dynamic when you're not necessarily selling to the customer who is really going to benefit from the value you bring. That was a very good experience.

For me it's very much about having a very clear strategic direction for the company so that all employees know where we're going, which means it's easier for them to make decisions that are fully aligned. That also means that you can empower all employees within their area of responsibility to handle that area. I think it's absolutely necessary in today's dynamic world that you have this empowered organization because that means you can act fast and agile in any given situation. For example, a few years back when we had the COVID pandemic, the ones who came best out of that were the ones who had an empowered workforce that could quickly adapt locally. But when you empower, you need to have the right employees, so talent density is important – having the right people in the right roles. And lastly, you need to provide your organization with psychological safety because that means they feel safe to try new things, to change, to improve. Every time we change or try to improve things, we often change behavior, and every time you change behavior you take a little personal risk, and you want to feel safe in taking that risk.

Yeah, so obviously I travel a lot so I'm mostly away the whole week from the family, so the family gets a lot of attention in the weekend. But then often a very active weekend. My daughters play tennis, especially the young one who is very competitive. I also run, stay fit. I think that's important in these roles as well because it is important that you are physically in good shape. But then nature is probably my biggest recharge place, where I like to walk in nature, run in nature, do other activities in nature. And that's also a bit back to sustainability, a very important thing for me. So no matter if I'm fly fishing or running or doing other things.

I think that would be that I would be very happy and looking very much forward to meet a lot of you in the coming months and years, and I'm really hoping that we can create a strong partnership going forward to create even more value for Valmet, for our customers, but also for the world.

Thanks Anor, good to see you.