Nokian announced ‘operational structure and management team’ changes

Alexej von Bagh is to take over the responsibility for global Process development at Nokian Tyres as of 1 April 2016. Mr von Bagh will have responsibility for the overall process architecture and process development. Mr von Bagh reports to the president and CEO. “Alexej has been a strong driver in Vianor’s success. Vianor’s processes are world class and business is growing. He will take the planning and execution of the whole company’s process architecture to the top level”, says Ari Lehtoranta, president and CEO of Nokian Tyres.

Meanwhile, Anna Hyvönen will assume the responsibility for Vianor and Partner Distribution. This responsibility includes the overall development of the company’s partner distribution strategy, expansion of the partner network and management of the equity owned Vianor chain. She has previously been responsible for the North Central Europe market area in Ramirent plc and the maintenance business in Kone plc. Hyvönen joins Nokian Tyres on 1 April 2016 and she will be reporting to the President and CEO.

Also, Andrei Pantioukhov has been appointed executive vice president. He will support the president and CEO in strategic initiatives, being a representative for the company and leading one of the Must Win Battles launched last year. He will also continue in his present role as the general manager for Nokian Tyres Russia.

Another change sees Nokian Tyres’ ICT function led by Heikki Mattsson who will be reporting to Teppo Huovila, who will be responsible for Quality, Sustainability and ICT. This change comes into effect 1 April 2016.

And finally, Head of Research and Development Juha Pirhonen has been appointed to management team.

This means that as of 1 April 2016 Nokian Tyres’ Management team looks like this: Ari Lehtoranta, President and CEO; Alexej von Bagh, Process Development; Esa Eronen, Supply Operations; Teppo Huovila, Quality, Sustainability and ICT; Anna Hyvönen, Vianor and Partner Distribution; Anne Leskelä, Finance & IR; Ville Nurmi, Human Resources; Andrei Pantioukhov, Executive Vice President, General Manager of Russian Operations; Juha Pirhonen, Research and Development; Manu Salmi, Heavy Tyres; Pontus Stenberg, Sales; Antti-Jussi Tähtinen, Marketing and Communications.