Login: FinlandIn our Inside the CFO Office series, we meet inspiring financial leaders who share their professional journeys, leadership insights, and perspectives on the evolving world of finance.
This time, we spoke with Joonas Sakki, CFO of Attendo Finland, a valued Ropo client since 2016. His path to financial leadership was shaped not by a fixed destination but by a growing conviction that some of the most meaningful work lies where economics meets human need, and that the best way to advance is to stay curious, create impact, and step up when responsibility is offered.
From macroeconomics to social impact
Joonas didn’t set out to become a CFO. His early ambitions lay in macroeconomics. He studied political science at university with a focus on economics, and envisioned a career in modeling national or global economic trends, perhaps at the Bank of Finland or a similar institution.
But during his studies, something shifted. Finland’s rapidly aging population drew his attention, and with it, the growing challenge of building a care sector capable of meeting that demand.
“I realized that the care and social services sector was going to be where things happen. Where change is needed, and where there’s genuine meaning in the work.”
For Joonas, the decision connects directly to his background in economics and to a concrete sense of civic purpose. As a Finnish taxpayer and citizen, he sees the financial sustainability of care services as one of the defining challenges of his generation.
“I wouldn’t frame it purely as soft values,” he notes carefully. “It’s about solving these challenges in an economically sustainable way, over the long term, for all of us.”
Joonas Sakki, CFO, Attendo Finland
Photo: Anna Dammert
A circle that closed seven years later
Joonas has spent the majority of his career at Attendo, building his expertise across a range of finance and business roles before rising to CFO of Attendo Finland in October 2022. In between, he served as CFO at Vetrea, a care services company that has since been divested to several operators, giving him valuable experience leading the finance function at the top level before returning to Attendo.
It was during his earlier time at Attendo, working as a Business Controller, that a turning point quietly announced itself. His analysis was shaping real decisions: strategies, resource allocations, business directions. The work had tangible impact.
Around that time, a business leader he worked closely with looked at him and said something he would carry with him for years: that Joonas had what it would take to become CFO of Attendo Finland one day. Seven years later, when he stepped into exactly that role, he recalled that moment.
“The circle had closed. Someone had seen that in me long before I did.”
A role that has grown with the business
Since taking on the finance director role, Joonas’s scope of responsibility has expanded well beyond traditional finance. Today, in addition to the finance function, he oversees real estate, procurement, and knowledge management at Attendo Finland, a team of over 50 professionals across multiple disciplines.
Attendo Finland itself has crossed the €1 billion revenue mark, a milestone that brings both complexity and opportunity. “The bigger the organization, the more the role moves toward strategic thinking,” Joonas reflects. “You’re looking further out, shaping scenarios, not just managing the present.”
The breadth of the role, he believes, is a feature rather than a challenge. Managing diverse functions keeps his perspective wide, and that breadth is precisely what the business needs from its CFO.
Joonas Sakki
Born: 1986
Current position: CFO, Attendo Finland (since October 2022)
Education: MSc (Political Science / Economics)
CFO Experience: Since 2022
Previous experience: Attendo (various finance and business control roles), Vetrea (CFO)
Coaching by instinct, performance by design
Joonas describes his natural leadership style as sparring and coaching, asking questions and opening space for his team’s own conclusions rather than prescribing answers. He’s curious by nature, and that curiosity shapes how he leads: probing, exploring, encouraging independent thinking.
“I ask a lot of questions. I give my team room to reach their own conclusions, and then I expect them to use that space well.”
But Joonas is deliberate about a harder skill he has worked to develop: direct performance management. The ability to intervene firmly when standards aren’t met, to hold people accountable with clarity and fairness, this is where he has invested intentional effort. “Coaching comes naturally. Addressing underperformance decisively is something I’ve actively trained myself to do better.”
Within his team, he prizes ownership above almost everything else. When someone takes responsibility for an area, he expects them to see it through, to bring it to completion. And he works hard to build growth paths that reward that commitment, creating opportunities within the organization for those who demonstrate both talent and dedication.
“I’ve seen junior people join Attendo and rise to senior management roles. Including, in a way, myself. That kind of internal development is one of the most valuable things we can do as an organization.”
Numbers that follow the business
When it comes to measurement, Joonas holds a clear philosophy: financial metrics are a result of what’s happening in the business, not the starting point.
“I believe strongly in following operational KPIs first. The financial numbers follow from those. That’s the philosophy we’ve taken far at Attendo.”
In Attendo’s residential care services, this means one metric dominates daily attention: occupancy rate, the proportion of care home places that are filled. Joonas monitors this every single day. It’s the clearest leading indicator of financial health in the business.
Alongside these operational signals, he also tracks longer-horizon metrics tied to strategic growth, KPIs that won’t move overnight but that shape where the company will stand years from now. These need patience, he points out, since not everything worth measuring fits into a daily operational view.
The underlying principle: metrics exist to drive decisions, not to populate reports. “It’s not what you measure, it’s what you do because of what you measure. That’s where the real value is.”
Risk in a regulated world, and beyond balance sheets
Operating in one of Finland’s most heavily regulated sectors means that risk management is never an isolated discipline. For Joonas, it must be woven into everything: strategic planning, annual budgeting, and the day-to-day management of Attendo’s care homes.
The past five years have brought exceptional legislative change. Staffing ratio requirements for elderly care, for example, have shifted almost annually. Each shift demands new scenario modeling and new contingency plans, with the team continuously preparing for different directions the regulation might take.
But Joonas is equally clear that risk in care services is not only financial. It is also operational, and deeply human.
“Every interaction with a client, with a family member, with a commissioning authority, those are moments where trust is either built or lost. And trust is the foundation everything else rests on.”
That perspective, that risk management is ultimately about protecting the quality of care and the relationships that make it possible, reflects something deeper in how Joonas thinks about his role.
Photo: Anna Dammert
AI in care: from assistant to process
Automation and robotics have long been part of Attendo’s financial processes. What has changed recently is the emergence of large language model AI, and the possibilities it opens for knowledge work.
Attendo has begun integrating AI into expert work, using it as a thinking partner and a tool for accelerating analysis and drafting. But Joonas’s eyes are firmly on what comes next: AI that becomes embedded in the processes themselves.
“Right now, AI is mostly an assistant for individual tasks,” he explains. “What I expect, and what I’m looking toward, is AI becoming genuinely integrated into workflows. We have a journey to travel before we reach that point, but the direction is clear.”
One development stands out as particularly promising in Attendo’s care operations: a voice-to-documentation AI application now in use across several care homes. The tool converts spoken care notes directly into written records, reducing the time nursing staff spend on documentation, and freeing that time for what matters most: being present with the people in their care.
“The results have been genuinely encouraging. Less time on admin, more time on care. That’s the kind of technology that creates real value, for our staff and for our clients.”
On the finance side, Joonas sees data quality as the defining challenge of the AI era. “The potential is enormous, but it depends entirely on having clean, reliable data at the foundation. Without that, you can’t build AI solutions that actually deliver. Get the fundamentals right first.”
This or That? CFO Quick-Fires
Short-term results or long-term building?
Long-term building.
Risk minimization or opportunity maximization?
Opportunity maximization.
Organic growth or acquisitions?
That’s tough to choose. I’d say both.
Data-driven or people-driven leadership?
Same for this one. Both.
Forecasting or reacting?
Forecasting.
Three pieces of advice, and one principle to live by
When asked what he’d tell a younger colleague building a career in finance, Joonas offers three clear principles.
Be curious. Dig into how businesses work. Understand the cause-and-effect relationships. Take a genuine interest in the people around you. That curiosity compounds over time, opening opportunities that pure technical competence alone cannot.
Create impact. Do your work in a way that actually moves things. Seek out roles where your contribution is visible and consequential. Don’t settle for being in the background.
Carry responsibility. Be the person others turn to when something important needs to be owned. Step up. Carry things through to the end. This, more than anything, is what builds a career.
And the single piece of wisdom he keeps closest at hand? A framework he has long found useful: the circle of control.
“Focus your energy on what you can decide and what you can influence. Everything else, let it go. You’ll have so much more to give when you stop fighting things you can’t change.”
It’s a principle that applies equally to a junior analyst navigating their first role and to a CFO managing a billion-euro organization in one of Finland’s most regulated industries.
Attendo is the Nordic region’s leading provider of care services, listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange. Attendo Finland, part of the Attendo Group, has a mission to empower people so that everyone in Attendo’s care can lead a full life on their own terms. Attendo Finland offers care and residential services for the elderly, people with intellectual disabilities, people with acquired disabilities, and those in substance abuse and mental health rehabilitation. The company also provides therapy services. To its residents, Attendo is above all a home; to its stakeholders, a partner; and in society, a strong force for change. Approximately 18,000 employees serve at more than 400 locations across Finland. Learn more about Attendo at attendo.fi
Attendo has been a valued Ropo client since 2016.
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 10,000 clients across Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Learn more about Ropo at ropo.com.
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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