Friday, October 24, 2025
Stora Enso (listed on Helsinki as STEAV/STERV and Stockholm as STE A/STE R, with ADRs in the USA) has announced the appointment of Sonja Salmi as its new Chief People & Culture Officer, effective 1 January 2026. In her new capacity, Salmi will lead the Group’s global People & Culture operations and will report directly to Micaela Thorström.
Salmi comes to this role with extensive leadership experience in human resources. Since 2019, she has served as Senior Vice President of HR at Stora Enso, where she has been valued for her deep HR expertise and highly collaborative leadership style. In her current role, Salmi has been heading People & Culture across the Foodservice and Liquid & Cartonboard business areas.
In her new role, she will assume accountability for the full spectrum of people-strategy, culture, talent development and employee engagement initiatives across Stora Enso’s workforce of around 20,000 employees globally. The company says it looks forward to her continued leadership in strengthening its culture and empowering its people.
“We warmly congratulate Sonja on her new role as Chief People and Culture Officer. We look forward to her continued leadership in strengthening our culture and empowering our people across Stora Enso.”
Stora Enso describes itself as the “renewable materials company” — a company built on the forest and focused on creating bio-based and carbon-storing solutions for low-carbon building construction, circular packaging and advanced biomaterials for customers across building, retail, food & beverages, e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, confectionery, hygiene and textiles. The appointment of a Chief People & Culture Officer underscores the company’s recognition that its people and culture are central to executing its business strategy.
With global operations and a workforce spanning multiple geographies and business units, aligning culture, talent and leadership capabilities plays a key role in driving the transition to renewable material choices and embedding sustainability across the organisation. The upcoming role expansion for Salmi thus signals an elevated focus on transforming HR into a strategic growth enabler for the group.
Salmi joined Stora Enso in 2019 as Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Her previous experience includes key HR leadership positions across major organisations, and her track record at Stora Enso has involved shaping HR practices across the company’s packaging divisions. Her peers and colleagues have credited her with combining deep HR domain knowledge with a collaborative mindset that brings people together across functions and geographies.
In stepping into the Chief People & Culture Officer role, Salmi will take broad responsibility for leadership-development, inclusion & diversity initiatives, workforce engagement, organisational design, and aligning the people agenda with the company’s purpose and values.
Stora Enso’s purpose, to “do good for people and the planet”, and its values — to “Lead” and “Do what’s right” — serve as the compass for business strategy, sustainability and culture. According to the company, these statements reflect how “we accelerate the transition to renewable material choices” and rely on the forest at the heart of their business.
As part of its identity the company says:
By elevating the role of Chief People & Culture Officer, Stora Enso is signalling that achieving these purposes and values requires a strong, aligned culture, empowered people and a capable leadership pipeline.
The appointment of Sonja Salmi as Chief People & Culture Officer marks a significant step in enhancing the organisation’s commitment to its people and culture. This leadership change highlights the company’s focus on aligning its human resources strategy with its broader business objectives, reinforcing the importance of a strong, unified workforce in achieving long-term growth and success.
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Tags: Chief People and Culture Officer, Finnish forest‑based company, HR leadership, Sonja Salmi, Stora Enso, woodworking industry, woodworking UK
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