Jorma Ollila

Jorma Ollila
Ollila in May 2011 at the 41. St. Gallen Symposium
Born	Jorma Jaakko Ollila (1950-08-15) 15 August 1950 Seinäjoki, Finland
Nationality	Finnish
Alma mater	University of Helsinki London School of Economics Helsinki University of Technology
Occupation	Businessman
Years active	1973–present
Title	former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, former chairman and former CEO of Nokia Corporation
Term	2006–2015
Predecessor	Aad Jacobs
Successor	Charles O. Holliday (from May 2015)
Board member of	Ford Motor Company, UPM-Kymmene and Otava Books and Magazines Group Ltd.

Jorma Jaakko Ollila (born 15 August 1950) is a Finnish businessman who was chairman of Royal Dutch Shell from 1 June 2006 to May 2015. Before that he was chairman (1999–2012) and CEO (1992–2006) of Nokia Corporation. He has been a director of Otava Books and Magazines Group Ltd. since 1996 and UPM-Kymmene since 1997, and is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, a New York-based boutique investment bank founded by Joseph R. Perella and Peter Weinberg in 2006.^[1]

For Nokia, he was credited with turning the company into the then world's largest handset maker.^[2]

Education

After elementary school in Kirkon koulu, Kurikka, Finland, Ollila went to high school in Vaasan Lyseon Lukio, Vaasa, with the help of a scholarship at the United World College of the Atlantic, where he earned his International Baccalaureate Diploma.

Thereafter, he obtained a Master of Political Science from University of Helsinki, a Master of Science (Economics) from London School of Economics and a Master of Science (Technology) in Engineering Physics from Helsinki University of Technology.

In 2003, he was elected an honorary fellow of the London School of Economics, and was awarded honorary membership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Ollila has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki, Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Vaasa.

Ollila is known to have been very active in student politics, and still today participates in Finnish political debate. As a conscript in the Finnish Defence Forces, he received reserve officer training. While attending the Finnish Reserve Officer School he was the chairman of his reserve officer course.

Career

Prior to joining Nokia in 1985, Ollila worked for eight years in corporate banking at Citibank's London and Helsinki offices, and when he joined Nokia his tasks involved international investment deals. A year later, in 1986, Ollila found himself as head of finance during Nokia's renewal under then CEO Kari Kairamo. He was appointed as chief of the mobile phones section in 1990, and CEO two years later in 1992. When Ollila first came to power, the company had suffered from internal disputes and had had a financial crisis for a number of years.

As CEO of Nokia he has led the strategy that restructured the former industrial conglomerate into one of the major companies in the mobile phone and telecommunications infrastructure markets.

In 1999, Ollila seriously considered taking part in the Finnish presidential election, following a request from a member of the National Coalition Party, Sauli Niinistö who was at that time Finnish finance minister and who later became Speaker of the Finnish Parliament. This was in spite the fact that Ollila belongs to a different party, the Finnish Centre party, which he has been involved with since his activities in student politics at the University of Helsinki.

He was CEO of Nokia from 1999 to 2006. He was succeeded as CEO by Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. On 15 September 2010, he announced he intended to step down from the position of Chairman in 2012^[2] and did so on 3 May 2012.^[3]

Ollila was chairman of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA), the most reputed economic and social studies think tank in Finland. Between 2005 and 2009, he was chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT).

Ollila is the first non-Dutch or non-British person to be the chairman of Shell. He is also the first chairman chosen for this multinational corporation in its new corporate form of Royal Dutch Shell. In October 2014, it was announced that he would be succeeded in May 2015 by the American Charles O. Holliday.^[4]

Others

Ollila is a member of the steering committee at the Bilderberg Group.^[5] He participated in the 1994 conference and in every Bilderberg conference since 1997.

Energy

Shell ended wind power development during the Ollila period.^[6] Oil company insists it can't make the numbers add up to justify offshore windfarms.^[7]

Publications

Ollila published his memoirs in October 2013. Ollila had recruited four security guard men in his book launch event in Helsinki in October 2013. Helsinki police say the protesters or presumed activists were expelled from the book launch.^[8]

Honours and awards

• Honorary Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) (2008)
• Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion of Finland (2005)
• Beijing Honorary Citizenship (2002), China
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1999)
• Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1997)
• Commander, 1st Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1996)
• Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary (1996)
• Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau (1995)
• Order of the White Star Estonia (1995)

Fines

Georg Ehrnrooth and Ollila were fined for Luxembourg investments in 2014. Ollila was fined 3,000 euros by Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Fiva) for failing to make a timely disclosure that he owns an investment company called Kestrel SA. The company is based in Luxembourg and was worth 8.2 million euros at the end of 2012. Ollila said that he had mistakenly neglected to disclose of the investment company and had not used the company to hold shares in firms where he has held executive positions.^[9]

References

External links

Media related to Jorma Ollila at Wikimedia Commons

• From ragbag to riches, The Guardian, August 3, 2005