New members proposed for UPM’s Board of Directors
UPM Board of Directors proposes that the current members Berndt Brunow, Michael C.Bottenheim, Karl Grotenfelt, Georg Holzhey, Wendy E. Lane, Jussi Pesonen, Ursula Ranin and Veli-Matti Reinikkala be re-elected for a new one year term that will continue until the Annual General Meeting 2009. Additionally, the Committee proposes that Matti Alahuhta and Björn Wahlroos be elected as new Board members for the same term.
Matti Alahuhta is President & CEO of KONE Corporation, elevator and escalator company, since 2006. He is member of the Board of KONE Corporation since 2003. Prior to joining KONE Corporation as President in 2005, Alahuhta served as Executive Vice President of Nokia Corporation 2004, as President of Nokia Mobile Phones 1998-2003, and as President of Nokia Telecommunications 1993-1998.
His current key positions of trust are Chairman of the Foundation Board of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD, Switzerland), Chairman of the Board for the Centennial Foundation of Technology Industries of Finland
and Board Member of BT Group.
Björn Wahlroos is President and CEO of Sampo, a Finnish financial services group. He spent the early years of his career in academia in Finland and in the United States.
In 1985 Björn Wahlroos was appointed to the Board of Management of Union Bank of Finland and took over the responsibility for its equity investments. He became
executive vice president and head of the bank's investment banking and treasury operations in 1989. In 1992 he led a group of bankers from UBF in forming the investment banking partnership Mandatum & Co, which eventually became one of the
leading advisors of mergers and acquisitions in Scandinavia and, after its takeover of Interbank in 1998, a significant provider of private banking and wealth management services as well.
Following the merger of Mandatum into the banking and insurance group Sampo-Leonia, Björn Wahlroos took over as its President and CEO in 2001. He has since headed the reorganization of that group into what today is Sampo./KB