Stanton Chase Expands in Finland
February 19, 2021 – Baltimore, MD-headquartered Stanton Chase has appointed Mika Hassinen as a partner in Helsinki, Finland. “Mika’s more than 15 years of expertise with public companies, combined with his in-depth knowledge of the private equity world and his experience in strategy consulting and investment banking, are a natural fit for our Helsinki team,” said Mikael Stelander, managing partner in Helsinki. Mr. Hassinen brings more than 25 years of experience to the office, where he will focus on the industrial, private equity, and energy and natural resources groups. He is also a strategic adviser to the board and C-suite and participates in client-side management team audits.
“His personality and values align with those of myself, as founding partner, and our two other partners, Kalle (Soikkanen) and Arto (Sormunen),” said Michael Stelander, managing partner, SC Helsinki. Mr. Hassinen has spent several years at a Dutch private equity house. He is also an active entrepreneur and investor in startup companies and is a non-executive member of the board of directors at a global aluminum foundry and machine shop company. During his 25 years of international career experience, Mr. Hassinen has worked mainly for multinational industrial companies as well as for strategy consulting, investment banking, and private equity. He previously served a listed mid-size company as divisional head, CFO and deputy to the CEO. Mr. Hassinen also served private and family-owned companies as CFO, CEO, and board member, and private equity portfolio and startup companies as CFO and CEO. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration in Finland and a master’s in forestry from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Mr. Hassinen is fluent in English, Finnish and Dutch.
In his new role with Stanton Chase, Mr. Hassinen advises Finnish and international clients on a wide variety of board, C-suite, and director-level recruitments as well as leadership and board evaluations and succession plans, especially in industry, natural resources and energy, private equity and financial services.
The Nordic nations of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have a combination of high living standards and low income disparity that has captured the world’s attention, according to Investopedia. At a time when the growing gap between the rich and poor has become a political hot button in developed nations, the region known as Scandinavia has been cited by many scholars as a role model for economic opportunity and equality.
Serving Client Globally
With offices in major cities around the world, Stanton Chase offers clients a global perspective while understanding local cultures and the challenges of moving products by sea, air, rail and trucking.
Stanton Chase recently named Mr. Stelander managing partner of the firm’s Finnish office, as global practice leader for all private equity activities. “Mikael will bring a fully updated and in-depth experience from servicing clients and the PE environment over the past 10 years,” said Flemming Riber, vice chair of practice groups. “He has been an active member in multiple PE associations and conferences offering our executive search consultancy as well as his competence in placing and evaluating execution power at C-level/boards in PE companies.”
With an extensive industry-based background, Mr. Stelander specializes in partnering with investors and C-level executives acting as an extension of their organization. His search portfolio includes projects for PE-owned firms across industry segments such as technology/software, manufacturing, engineering, consumer and energy. His background includes collaboration with PE, family offices, fund of funds as well as start-ups, mainly involved in buy-and-build projects.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
