Inside the CFO Office: Herkko Soininen, Mehiläinen

In our Inside the CFO Office series, we spotlight financial leaders whose journeys offer fresh perspectives on leadership, growth, and the evolving role of finance.

This time, we meet Herkko Soininen, CFO of Mehiläinen, a valued Ropo client since 2018. His unconventional path to financial leadership – from telecommunications sales to leading finance at one of Europe’s fastest-growing healthcare companies – shows how diverse experience builds exceptional leaders.

Why sales made all the difference

Most CFOs follow well-trodden paths through controller roles and treasury departments. Herkko took the scenic route. With degrees in both economics (MSc) and electrical engineering (MSc Tech), he faced a choice upon graduation: finance or technology? He chose neither – at least not directly.

“I ended up as a salesperson, which was completely different from what I had planned,” Herkko recalls. Working at Tecnomen, he sold voice mail systems and intelligent network solutions – a role that connected his technical background with something unexpected: the power of communication and persuasion.

That early sales experience would prove far more valuable than any traditional accounting apprenticeship.

“I have to say that having a sales background has been enormously beneficial in CFO roles, because CFO work is selling,” Herkko explains. “I’m constantly selling the company to financiers and investors. Internally, you’re selling ideas – even something as simple as getting someone to fill out an Excel sheet requires you to sell the ‘why’.”

Reflecting on this, he adds a recommendation that challenges conventional thinking: “This should be part of basic CFO education – sales training. You can present things in many different ways, and knowing how to do that makes all the difference.”

The stakes become tangible when discussing Mehiläinen’s debt financing work. “We have hundreds of debt investors worldwide. If I can present the company’s story clearly and help them see the full picture – the actual risk profile – it directly affects interest margins. At our scale, we’re talking about closer to €10 million impact annually even with just one quarter of a percent difference in margin.”

The unconventional path to the CFO seat

After his sales years, Herkko’s career took him through Sonera SmartTrust – including two years establishing operations in Singapore – before landing at Savcor, a Mikkeli-based family company with nearly €100 million in revenue and operations spanning mobile components, construction, and forestry systems.

Here’s where his story diverges sharply from convention. The family business owners of Savcor, known for their entrepreneurial instincts, saw something in Herkko’s diverse background that traditional hiring might have missed – and offered him the CFO position directly. No controller apprenticeship. No treasury stint. Straight into the deep end.

“I don’t have that traditional CFO path of being a controller or treasurer first. It came more through the business side – through operations, strategy, and understanding how the business actually works – straight to CFO.”

The Savcor years taught him financial leadership under pressure. When Nokia shifted production to China, the company carved out its crown jewels and listed them on the Australian stock exchange. Herkko followed, spending about five years in Australia before Rovio called during the height of Angry Birds-mania.

“It was the top headline in Kauppalehti: ‘Rovio is looking for a CFO’,” Herkko remembers. “They needed someone with international experience and the ability to navigate rapid growth. That’s how I ended up at Rovio for three years during its craziest period.”

Herkko Soininen

Born: 1972
Current position: CFO, Mehiläinen
Education: MSc (Economics), MSc (Technology)
CFO Experience: 21+ years
Previous experience: Rovio, Savcor, Sonera SmartTrust, Tecnomen

Finding home at Mehiläinen

After Rovio’s breakneck pace slowed, Herkko joined Mehiläinen in 2015. “I thought Finnish business might be a bit dull compared to these international growth stories,” he admits. “But I knew the new CEO was an extremely smart person, and I sensed something interesting was brewing.”

He was right. What followed has been extraordinary transformation.

When Herkko joined, Mehiläinen had just acquired Mediverkko, creating a combined pro forma revenue of around €400 million. The company’s digital infrastructure was in its early stages, requiring significant modernization. “We needed to get things moving on multiple fronts,” Herkko recalls with a laugh, noting that IT actually reported to him for the first year until he recruited his former colleague as CIO.

Nearly 11 years later, the numbers tell a remarkable growth story. “The 2025 pro forma revenue is over €3 billion,” he explains. “The growth has been truly massive, and the pace isn’t slowing down.”

The international expansion has been equally dramatic. “Following the latest acquisitions, around half of Mehiläinen’s staff and healthcare service production is already outside Finland,” Herkko notes. New markets include Romania and Serbia, requiring entirely new international finance structures.

Working for a company with 116 years of history might seem limiting for a growth-focused CFO.

Herkko sees it differently. “We’re extremely proud of our long history and traditions. You can see it in our deep pride in quality – doing things right for the long term,” he says.

“But the history doesn’t burden our financial work. We’ve been able to modernize completely. The history provides perspective and the ability to look beyond momentary challenges.”

Leadership through positivity

Ask Herkko about his leadership approach, and he shifts from reflection to practicality. “I delegate responsibility and expect my team to proactively drive things forward. I’m more of a sparring partner, ensuring resources and providing support along the way.”

Trust forms the foundation, but Herkko adds one critical requirement that sets his team apart: positivity.

“One thing I emphasize when recruiting is positive thinking,” he says. “Traditionally, finance people like things to stay predictable and clear. When uncertainty comes, people start getting anxious and stressed. We’ve tried to find people who see the glass as half full – who get energy from changes rather than getting stressed by them.”

His approach to hiring reflects this philosophy: “If someone doesn’t smile during a job interview, I don’t hire them. You need to bring positivity to your surroundings, because one bad apple can counteract six or seven good people.”

This focus on positive, change-energized people has proven essential for supporting Mehiläinen’s transformation. “Our employee turnover is really low, both generally at Mehiläinen and in the finance team. We’re getting excellent talent, and I’ve been able to build a strong team. That makes the work so much easier when you have people you can trust who deliver quality work.”

Perspective under pressure

Having navigated financial crises, restructurings, and hypergrowth across multiple continents, Herkko brings a particular kind of calm to challenging situations.

“Along the way, I’ve seen so much – times when cash was extremely tight, situations where I’ve literally been awake at night figuring out how to get salary money together,” he reflects. “Those experiences give you perspective. Ultimately, you realize that while the numbers now have more zeros, the core concerns aren’t that different.”

This hard-won perspective shapes how he approaches today’s challenges at Mehiläinen’s scale. “Pressure tolerance is necessary, but in the end, the fundamentals don’t change much.”

Choose breadth over linear paths

For those building their finance careers, Herkko offers clear guidance based on his unconventional route.

“What has really worked for me is multidisciplinarity,” he emphasizes. “Instead of going down a specific track toward a CFO position, try different types of roles. It gives you tremendous perspective and helps you understand the stakeholder groups you'll work with – how engineers think, how salespeople think, and so on.”

It’s advice born from experience – from someone who took the scenic route and found it led exactly where he needed to go. “This multidisciplinarity, especially early in your career, provides an excellent foundation and a broader spectrum.”

Looking ahead: International transformation

As Mehiläinen continues its international expansion, Herkko’s unconventional background proves increasingly valuable. The transformation extends far beyond geography – it requires reimagining processes, building new structures, and leading teams across borders.

“When we acquire companies abroad, we notice they might have one-fourth the revenue of comparable Finnish operations, but twice as many people in finance,” Herkko observes. “We’re making major changes to processes, and a lot of that will come through digitalization. Having the right partners in the right places makes all the difference.”

For Herkko, the journey from telecommunications sales through Singapore, Australia, game companies, and now healthcare leadership has built exactly what’s needed for this moment: perspective, communication skills, and the resilience to thrive in complexity. And those are the same qualities he valued when building his team.

“You need people who get strength from changes – who see opportunities where others see obstacles,” he emphasizes.

It’s a fitting philosophy for someone whose career has been defined by embracing the unexpected – and finding opportunity in every turn.

Mehiläinen is a well-known and respected private social and healthcare service provider offering high-quality, comprehensive services in Finland and internationally. With 116 years of history, Mehiläinen is a rapidly developing and growing pioneer in its field. Mehiläinen serves 5 million customers annually through 1,500 service locations with over 50,000 employees and practitioners. Internationally, Mehiläinen provides health services in Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Romania, and Serbia, as well as digital healthcare software solutions through its subsidiary BeeHealthy.

Mehiläinen has been a valued Ropo client since 2018.

Ropo is the Nordic market leader and pioneer in invoicing technology, transforming the invoicing flow end-to-end. We help companies unify and streamline all invoicing processes to create a seamless workflow, providing full visibility, elevated customer experience, and improved control with a single overview. Committed to exceptional service and our one-platform strategy, we proudly support over 11,000 clients across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

This article is part of Ropo’s CFO Insights and Trends series, featuring expert perspectives, key trends, inspiring financial leaders, and more.

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