Emmi Laine

Journalist  ·  Reporter  ·  Head of Content

Work

A selection of journalism, investigations, and features published across print and digital platforms.

Leadership

Six CFO seats, one lesson: Finnair’s Pia Aaltonen-Forsell on what survives every crisis

Few Nordic finance leaders have seen as many industries from the CFO chair as Pia Aaltonen-Forsell. Forestry at Munksjö and Ahlstrom Munksjö. Steel at Outokumpu. Batteries at Northvolt. Aviation at Finnair. She chairs UPM’s Audit Committee, and by January she takes on her next role as CFO of Valmet. Each industry has its own logic, its own cycles, its own shocks. Yet across all of them, Finnair CFO Aaltonen-Forsell says, the fundamentals that decide whether a company survives disruption barely change.

listeds.com

2026

Business

Think global from day one: How Finland’s Almada Label entered Hollywood closets

A Finnish fashion brand worn by Jennifer Lawrence, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Kelly Rutherford may look like an overnight success story. In reality, Almada Label’s rise into Hollywood closets has been the result of deliberate global positioning from day one. It is also a reminder that in a small market, scale begins with mindset.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Wolt, SEES, and Salama show the power of a small market

“Five and a half million people with modest purchasing power and even weaker willingness to spend,” says Riku Vassinen, CEO of marketing communications agency Hasan and Partners and a board member at Salama Brewing Company, describing the Finnish market. It is, he adds, “a difficult combination. The market exists elsewhere.” For Salama, fragrance house SEES, and food delivery company Wolt, that reality has shaped strategy from the start. In a small home market, growth demands sharper positioning and earlier international moves, sometimes even at a Hollywood scale.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Work hard, rest harder: What brain fitness teaches about peak performance

This article explores how brain fitness — the balance between high performance and intentional recovery — is essential for sustainable leadership. CEO Salli Hara shares her journey of learning to slow down, emphasizing that rest, boredom, and self-awareness enhance creativity and long-term success. Performance coach Heikki Huovinen reinforces that true productivity comes not from constant busyness but from mastering the art of recovery.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Beyond sisu: A short guide to building organizational resilience

Listeds met with Ulrika Björkstam to discuss resilience, a skill that can be developed at both the individual and organizational levels. Based on her work with Nordic executive teams, low organizational resilience tends to surface in recurring patterns.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Quiet quitting, with Finnish characteristics

At the start of 2026, a new work-life topic surfaced in the Finnish media: sick leave taken not because of illness, but because work itself, or conditions at the workplace, had become unbearably frustrating. According to Janne Tienari, professor of management at Hanken School of Economics, the phenomenon may signal something broader. Trust is eroding, and workplace experiences may become increasingly polarized.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

The hidden risk in CEO transitions: executive team derailers

CEO transitions are a consistent focal point in annual reports and board discussions. What receives far less attention, in research and in practice, is how the executive team prepares itself for the change. And yet, this is where success or failure often begins.

listeds.com

2026

Business

Iran conflict reshapes risks for Finnish leaders, Danske Bank’s Kuusisto calls for a new playbook

For years, Nordic companies optimized for efficiency. Lean supply chains, just-in-time logistics, and global sourcing defined the model. That model is now under strain. “Geopolitics has become a key driver for economies and markets,” says Minna Kuusisto, head of macro research in Finland at Danske Bank. Kuusisto has been closely following the Iran War and its implications for Finland.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Radical trust: The silent force powering Nordic innovation

In Helsinki this November, the startup world once again convened under the LED glow of Messukeskus. Slush, the Helsinki-based annual startup event often described as the largest founder-focused gathering in the world, brought together over 13,000 attendees, including investors with more than USD4 trillion in assets under management. Yet amid the buzz of pitch decks and caffeine, its CEO, 26-year-old Aino Bergius, moved with studied calm.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Luhta CEO shares what Nordic executives can learn from sportswear group’s decades in China

China is often framed in Nordic boardrooms as a risk to be managed rather than a system to learn from. Juha Luhtanen, CEO of the Finnish sportswear and fashion group Luhta, takes a different view. After two decades of Luhta operations in the country, he sees a market shaped by long-term partnerships, industrial innovation, and rapid capital deployment, not a low-value “developing” economy.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Legal insider Katarina Rosenström steers Titanium’s reinvention

After the previous CEO left in the middle of Titanium’s business model makeover, the board chose a legal insider to guide the real-estate-focused asset manager’s shift into a wealth management company. Investors are now closely watching the speed of execution.

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

Inderes CEO Mikael Rautanen on the risks of a ‘perfect’ IPO

In the red-hot IPO year of 2021, Inderes rang the bell at €25 a share. “The IPO was a vast success,” says Mikael Rautanen, co-founder and CEO of the Finnish company that targets no smaller goal than democratizing investor information. “We set the IPO subscription price to €25 per share, and the moment we rang the bell, the share price went to €50.” In hindsight, Rautanen is more reflective than celebratory. “Was that a good starting point for us as a listed company when the expectations of the market are through the roof?”

listeds.com

2026

Leadership

One Talenom: Juho Ahosola's bet on focus after the split

Following Talenom's February 2026 demerger that separated its software division, newly appointed CEO Juho Ahosola explains how organisational focus and employee experience will drive the accounting services company's next phase of growth.

Listeds

2026

Leadership

CEO Index — Finland | Q1 2026

Tracking executive movement, compensation, and boardroom change across Finnish listed companies in the first quarter of 2026.

Listeds

2026