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FocalSpec Appoints Harri Leinonen as New CEO
May 21, 2018 | FocalSpecEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
The Board of Directors has appointed Harri Leinonen as the new chief executive officer of FocalSpec Oy. Harri, 55, has built his long and impressive career in global technology companies. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Åbo Akademi. Harri, who describes himself as a management generalist, has held various executive management roles in Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology and Nokia, prior joining FocalSpec.
Sauli Törmälä, former CEO and co-founder of the company, remains dedicated to FocalSpec as chairman of the board of directors.
Sauli, who has led the company from a VTT spin-off to its current stage, with its unique metrology products and global corporate presence, is confident that Harri will lead the company through its next phase of exponential growth:
“Harri is an experienced corporate director and his experience with Nokia will help us to gain the expected growth in the consumer electronics business that we have initiated over the last couple of years.“
Harri’s appointment is a clear reflection of the company’s current state: FocalSpec is ready to take on the future with strong support from investors. Harri’s strong experience in sales and marketing from product management and sales operations to new market entries in Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and Africa further elevates FocalSpec’s global presence.
“The biggest influence on my career was the experience with Nokia. I joined them before the wild years, in 1991, and left in 2010. In that time span, the company was basically completely transformed. I joined a Finnish company operating on international markets and I left a company that was one of the few international companies based in Finland,” Harri says.
“I enjoyed that journey tremendously. Most of all, I liked the atmosphere, where you were always encouraged to try out different things and not to focus too much on the possibility of failure. I do believe that organisations work best when people feel confident that they can try out things. That’s something I’d like to maintain at FocalSpec, too. We have tremendous opportunities for growth so let’s dare to make decisions we believe in.”
Harri is returning to Finland after a 20-month post in the United Arab Emirates. From now on, he will share his time between FocalSpec’s headquarters in Oulu, the company sales office in Helsinki, and his family home in Turku, not to mention the time he will spend travelling around the world visiting customers, distributors and integrators.
Harri has extensive experience not only in leading sales and marketing, but also in leading people. He has a clear view of how he wants to lead his team in his new role:
“FocalSpec has smart, well-educated people. If anything, the leader can help people find their own ambitions and do something about it. I’m always keen to empower people to live up to their role, take responsibility for their area, to learn and to grow. I am not a great believer in micromanagement.”
FocalSpec’s Distribution Partner Days bring people from Central Europe, Asia and North America to Oulu this week. The new CEO is embracing the opportunity to meet the partners on the first day of his new job.
“One key element for our commercial success is a strong network of distributors and system integrators,” Harri says. “We already have exemplary long-term partners, but we will inevitably need to grow this network both in size and strength to reach our ambitious goals and full potential.”
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