Nordic meat and poultry company HKScan is undergoing changes in leadership, as the company has appointed both a new chairman and a new CEO.
HKScan’s board has appointed Tero Hemmilä as the company’s CEO, and Reijo Kiskola as its chairman.
Tero Hemmilä succeeds Jari Latvanen as CEO
Hemmilä transfers to the position of HKScan’s president and CEO from his current role as commercial director of the Nordic area at Yara. Hemmilä will start at HKScan no later than in March 2019. For the time being, the tasks of HKScan Corporation’s president and CEO will be carried out by Kiskola.
Following the HKScan board meeting on November 2018, Jari Latvanen, who reached an agreement with the board in which he would leave his leadership position with the company, effective immediately. Latvanen had been HKScan’s president and CEO since October 2016.
Hemmilä has served as commercial director of the Nordic area at Yara since 2015. Prior to this, he was country manager of Yara Finland from 2010 to 2015. Hemmilä worked for HKScan between 1997 and 2010 in different roles, among others as senior vice president in charge of meat business and primary production and as senior vice president of strategy and development. Hemmilä also served on HKScan’s board from 2011 to 2016.
“We are delighted to begin working together with Tero Hemmilä. Tero represents the versatile food and meat business expertise that is needed in a change situation. I am confident that he will be able to quickly drive reforms that improve the company’s profitability. I warmly welcome Tero to HKScan,” said Kiskola.
Reijo Kiskola succeeds Mikko Nikula as chairman
HKScan Corporation’s Board of Directors elected Reijo Kiskola as its new chairman in its meeting on November 27. Kiskola has served in the company’s board since April and, according to a press release from the company, has solid experience in international leadership duties in the food industry, and he is independent of the company and of its significant shareholders.
Kiskola succeeds Mikko Nikula, who has departed from the board entirely. He has served as the board’s chairman since 2015.
“The company has a strong From Farm to Fork strategy, and its basic direction is the right one. However, the strategy implementation has not improved the company’s profitability in the way we have anticipated,” explained Kiskola. We will now, together with HKScan’s skilled and committed personnel, focus even more strongly on actions that strengthen the company’s competitiveness and profitability.
“I and the board of directors want to thank Mikko Nikula and Jari Latvanen for the work they have done for the company and wish them success in future endeavors.”
