Nokia's Vehvilainen named Finnair CEO

Nordic carrier Finnair's board on Wednesday named Mika Vehvilainen, a veteran from Nokia responsible for the telecom major's business development in Asia, as its new President and CEO.

Vehvilainen has been with Nokia since 1991 and is currently Chief Operating Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks.

He has strong experience of sales and marketing and of strategic management and business development in Asia, which happens to be Finnair's focus market.

Forty per cent of Finnair's revenues come from Asian traffic, with India being one the top growth markets.

The Finnish flag carrier flies daily to New Delhi from Helsinki and operates a second service between Helsinki and Mumbai.

"Finnair has all that it takes to emerge from the hard times as a winner, but this will require goal-directed development of the business practices," Vehvilainen, who will take charge in January next year, said in a statement.

Finnair's current President and CEO Jukka Hienonen will leave his post at the end of January 2010.