Kim Poulsen Appointed CEO Of Spinnova; Janne Poranen Named Chair And Harri Sundvik Appointed Deputy Chair Of Spinnova Board Of Directors

HELSINKI — June 14, 2022 — The  Board of Directors of Spinnova Plc has appointed Kim Poulsen, M.Sc. (Econ.), as the company’s new CEO (b. 1966). He will assume his duties on August 1, 2022.

At the same time, the company’s board of directors has appointed Spinnova’s Co-Founder and current CEO Janne Poranen as the chair of the board of directors and current Chair Harri Sundvik as as the deputy chair of the board of directors as of August 1, 2022.

Poulsen’s most recent executive leadership position was president of the Pulp & Paper segment and member of the Group Executive Management Team at Kemira Plc. He has a strong forest and materials industry background combined with years of international leadership experience with Kemira in the US (from 2018 to 2020) and in China (from 2015 to 2016). Prior to serving Kemira, Kim was a member of the Executive Board of UPM Plc and based in China (from 2013 to 2015) and in a senior leadership position at UPM Wood (from 2011 to 2013). Prior to UPM, Kim worked for Metsä Group from 1996 to 2010.

In his role as Executive Chair, Poranen will focus on long-term value creation and continue to actively engage in key strategic initiatives and support relationships with the company’s strategic partners. As the Deputy Chair, Sundvik will focus on supporting long-term strategy formulation and engagement with the capital markets.

Chair of the Board Harri Sundvik commented: “The board believes that Kim Poulsen is the best leader to assume the vitally important CEO role at this critical phase in Spinnova’s development. Spinnova is executing a very demanding investment program over the next few years, and strengthening our commercial and strategic partnerships around the globe. We have every confidence that Kim will lead these efforts with success, and his skills and experience will inspire us all when we take Spinnova to the next level.

Janne Poranen advised us earlier in the spring that it is time for him to move from the operating CEO role to a new role, where he can focus on long term strategy to take Spinnova to the next level. In his new role as chair of Spinnova Board of Directors, Janne’s unique technology and leadership competence, combined with his passion and vision as one of the Founders, will drive us to achieve our aspiration of global sustainability leadership.”

Poulsen commented: “I am very excited and honoured to join Spinnova’s unique team and to drive the realisation of the Company’s strategic vision together with the management team and the board. I believe that my strong global experience of the forest and materials industry will strengthen the Spinnova strategy execution through the next critical phases.”

Posted June 14, 2022

Source: Spinnova

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