Kemira renews operating model and Management Board to accelerate growth strategy

Kemira renews operating model and Management Board to accelerate growth strategy

Kemira announces changes to its operating model to better meet profitable growth ambitions and moves to three externally reported business units. The planned changes aim to increase customer centricity, strategic focus, speed of delivery and accelerate growth and shareholder value creation. As a result of the changes, both the composition and the name of Kemira’s Management Board will change.

Kemira’s Group Leadership Team from January 1, 2025

The new Group Leadership Team members will start in their roles on January 1, 2025 led by the President and CEO Antti Salminen.

Petri Castrén, Chief Financial Officer
Tuija Pohjolainen-Hiltunen, Executive Vice President, Water Solutions
Harri Eronen, Executive Vice President, Packaging & Hygiene Solutions
Antti Matula, Executive Vice President, Fiber Essentials
Chief Operations Officer, Operations (to be appointed later)
Eeva Salonen, Executive Vice President, People & Culture
Linus Hildebrandt, Executive Vice President, Strategy & Sustainability
Sampo Lahtinen, Executive Vice President, Research & Innovation
Peter Ersman, Executive Vice President, New Ventures & Services

Petri Castrén, Tuija Pohjolainen-Hiltunen, Eeva Salonen and Linus Hildebrandt are members of the current Management Board. Harri Eronen is an Interim President of the Pulp & Paper Segment and has been a member of the Management Board since February 2024.

Antti Matula (1976) joined Kemira in 2002 and has had several senior leadership roles in Kemira’s Pulp & Paper organization, latest as Senior Vice President Global Product Lines and Business development, Pulp & Paper. Sampo Lahtinen (1976) joined Kemira in 2016 to lead Kemira’s EMEA R&D organization and since 2022 the Growth Accelerator unit. Peter Ersman (1975) joined Kemira in 2012 and has had several senior leadership roles in Kemira’s Industry & Water organization, latest as Senior Vice President Global Product Lines, Industry and Water.

The search for the Chief Operations Officer is ongoing.

Esa-Matti Puputti, Executive Vice President Operational Excellence & Sustainability and Chief Technology Officer Matt Pixton will retire in the beginning of 2025. Both will continue in the Management Board until the end of 2024. Group General Counsel Jukka Hakkila will continue as the secretary of Kemira’s Board of Directors and the new Leadership Team in 2025. The current Management Board continues until December 31, 2024.

Antti Salminen, Kemira President & CEO, said: “Kemira is in excellent shape today. Now it is time to move to the next phase in our strategy execution by speeding up our transformation and accelerating our growth trajectory, while at the same time ensuring we retain our profitable base business and operational efficiency. I’m confident that the planned changes to our operating model will deliver an even better and more sustainable offering to our customers and attractive long-term value creation for Kemira’s shareholders. I want to congratulate all new leadership team members,  I’m very much looking forward to working together and taking Kemira’s transformation forward. I also want to already warmly thank both Esa-Matti and Matt for their great achievements and their commitment and effort for Kemira’s success during the past years. Esa-Matti has built Kemira’s operational excellence to a new level and Matt has had an integral role in the transformation of Kemira’s Research & Development capabilities.” 

Kemira will move to a customer solution-based organization with three new customer-facing business units. Water Solutions will become Kemira’s largest business unit reflecting Kemira’s ambitions to significantly grow the water business both organically and inorganically. The Packaging & Hygiene Solutions business unit focuses on, among others, the growing renewable solutions market, particularly packaging, where Kemira’s renewable product offering supports customers on their sustainability journey. The Fiber Essentials business unit focuses on the pulp and bleaching market, where Kemira’s products play an essential role in the value chain.

Kemira will also establish a centralized Operations unit that includes e.g. Kemira’s manufacturing network, to further strengthen Kemira’s operational backbone, enabling stronger cooperation and optimizing efficiency.

Kemira will also change ways of working in Research & Development. Product Development will move into the new business units, increasing proximity to customers and the autonomy to prioritize initiatives to result in increased speed-to-market. The new Research & Innovation unit will focus on long-term research and innovations.

A New Ventures and Services unit will also be established, and acts as a growth engine through the development and commercialization of new products and services and develops digital services for all business unit customers. The New Ventures and Services unit will not be reported as a separate business unit externally.

The planning and design of the new operating model and organization will begin immediately and the new operating model is intended to be effective on January 1, 2025.

The changes in the structure will also impact Kemira’s external financial reporting and Kemira will report three business units, Water Solutions, Packaging & Hygiene Solutions and Fiber Essentials, externally from Q1 2025 onwards. Kemira will publish more detailed financial information for the new business units at a later stage. Kemira will arrange a Capital Markets Day on September 26. The new operating model will be one of the covered topics during the event.

For more information, please contact:

Investor inquiries:
Mikko Pohjala, Vice President, Investor Relations
Tel.  +358 40 838 0709
mikko.pohjala@kemira.com

Media inquiries:
Terhi Kivinen, Chief Communications Officer
Tel.+358 40 8484001
terhi.kivinen@kemira.com

Greg Morrison, Director Communications
Tel. +31 6 21 62 87 23
greg.morrison@kemira.com

Kemira is a global leader in sustainable chemical solutions for water-intensive industries. Our customers include industrial and municipal water treatment operators, and pulp & paper industry among others. We provide the best-suited products and services to improve our customers’ product quality, process, and resource efficiency. Our focus is on water treatment, renewable solutions and digital services. In 2023, Kemira had annual revenue of around EUR 3.4 billion and around 5,000 employees. Kemira shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. www.kemira.com