Team size: 20

What are the projects that you are most proud of working on over the past 12 months?

I am very proud of the growth and renewal steps taken in the legal team in many fronts: Two special competence area lawyers were developed into high-quality experts that are superpowers in their field, a third new lawyer was hired and she has proven to be a generalist superpower, and finally a new geographic area was covered by another new lawyer who is very competent but we are still supporting her to become more business friendly and brave enough to prioritise. All these changes were processed in a manner that both the persons involved, as well as the entire team, ended up in a common acceptance that enforcement and higher-level competence was needed. We were able to proceed in a highly respectful and constructive manner, and the new team is working nicely together even if we obviously need to continue getting to know each other better as colleagues and humans. This renewal was mandated by the requirements set by the market and its rapid development driven by changes in consumer behavior and technology development as well as the authorities’ increasing interest and aspirations towards stricter controls and higher sanctions. The changes were also supported by the internal customer feedback. The team was developed also otherwise through our team-building initiatives, including both individual and team-specific items, and systematic implementation thereof. I feel very grateful and lucky with the current team which is in the top form now professionally and also spirit-wise – we work together to enable Posti’s success – and they are all great personalities. Business is very pleased and I am super proud of the team!

Another topic I am proud of is my involvement as responsible for Posti’s innovation activities. In that area, we renewed the entire structure and way of working, identified innovation-prone and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking people within the organisation (and let them fly!), built a small but efficient set up for innovation activities, and above all, started two great incubation projects, one of which seems to be growing well enough to truly create new business and growth to Posti. As this is not directly part of my legal role, the story is still limited but I am super proud of this development and the people involved.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

Three topics:

The overall view, which includes both the big picture but also digs into the details to understand various consequences, shall be kept in mind all the time. This applies to me but also to the senior lawyers in the team, and we share information on a continuous basis – I share the total picture and they share the business specific viewpoints that we all consider together. Some topics may require smaller audience or I need to keep within myself only, but that must be done in a respectful manner.

Continuous information sharing, to the extent possible, to keep people informed and alerted but not unnecessarily scared is the most crucial. The organisation cannot be resilient if not everyone (or at least most of employees) are resilient personally, and it is hard to do if you are kept without information. It is also important to connect the shared information and story to the company’s strategy and strengths, along with the general market development: there are always periods of instability or crisis, but we can show the strength of our strategy and operations by focusing on our performance even if the sun is not shining all the time. Respectively, my role as GC is to keep the top management informed from the legal aspects of the situation.

Prioritised legal aspects (based on the overall view under #1) shall be monitored with extra focus. If needed, external legal resources shall be hired for that purpose.

What do you derive the most satisfaction from in your work?

When I see my team members to grow, broaden their perspective, create new (viewpoints, ways of working, services, etc) either on legal side or business side, see both the big picture and still being interested in the details impacted thereto, increase their curiosity, allow themselves to be humans not just lawyers, want to change the role and position (perhaps even outside of legal), behave in a respectful and appreciating manner towards everyone equally, and have a life outside of work. This is absolutely the best one can achieve as GC, and when you have moments where you see this type of development, it is really wonderful!

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

I have had many, the top three of which are:

Arranging Nokia’s shareholder meetings for thousands of participants and implementing each year the most modern ways and legal interpretations, as the first one in Finland. (‘First time in Finland’ also applied to a number of my other projects at Nokia)

Influencing regulation on various levels in Finland from laws to self-regulatory rules, but also arguing well enough to make the US SEC to amend their rules.

Standing for Posti Board of Directors, and arguing based on the corporate laws and the company’s long-term benefit, against politicians who tried to misuse the owner’s power (as Posti is a fully state-owned company). It was a complex totality with various details, but ultimately it led to the Prime Minister resigning from his position (and another minister had been dismissed already earlier) due to his misjudgment and publicly presented lies.

Based on your experiences in the past year, are there any trends in the legal or business world that you are keeping an eye on that you think other in-house lawyers should be mindful of?

Everyone certainly answers AI, and so do I – it is a huge issue with so large impacts that I guess we do not yet understand even half of it. There are also other important trends to watch out but this is above everything else.