Sami Riekkola (M.Sc. (Eng) has been appointed Valmet (Finland) Business Line President, Automation, as of Sept. 1, 2018. He will be a member of Valmet's Executive Team and report to President and CEO Pasi Laine.

Riekkola (photo) is currently employed at Valmet as VP, Energy and Process Systems, in the Automation business line. He started his career in 1998 as automation project engineer at Valmet and has since then worked in a variety of automation positions within the company in several geographical locations in Europe and Australia. During the years, he has gathered excellent experience from automation products, project management, sales and customer management, as well as automation related services. 

Sakari Ruotsalainen, the current Valmet Business Line President, Automation, has decided to retire as of Sept. 30, 2018, after a long and successful career at Valmet. 

"It is a pleasure to welcome Sami Riekkola to our executive team. His long and versatile experience in our automation business has helped him to gain a thorough understanding of the business and its customers in different markets. With this background, I believe Sami is in an excellent position to lead our Automation business line and to grow it further. I want to thank Sakari Ruotsalainen for his strong dedication and excellent contribution to Valmet's success in the past years. It has been a true pleasure to work with Sakari. We wish Sakari all the best for his well-earned retirement days," said Laine.