Matti Juhani Alahuhta (born 22 June 1952 in

Alahärmä Alahärmä is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated, together with Kortesjärvi and Ylihärmä, to Kauhava on 1 January 2009. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region. ...

, Finland) was the President & CEO of KONE Corporation (2005–2014). Earlier he worked 26 years at Nokia Corporation and was Member of

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

's Executive Board from 1993 to 2004. He is Chairman of the Board of DevCo Partners Oy. He is also Member of the Board of Directors of Kone Corporation (2003-) and

AB Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributi ...

(2014-).

Biography

Early life and education

Matti Alahuhta attained his M.Sc. (Tech.) in 1976 and D.Sc. (Tech.) in 1990 at the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; fi, Teknillinen korkeakoulu; sv, Tekniska högskolan) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki. The university was founded in ...

. His dissertation was titled "Global Growth Strategies for High Technology Challengers". Alahuhta has also attended executive education qualifications from IMD Business School in Switzerland and received an Honorary Doctorate from

Tampere University of Technology Tampere University of Technology (TUT) ( fi, Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto (TTY)) was Finland's second-largest university in engineering sciences. The university was located in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere. It was merged with the University o ...

Career

Alahuhta joined

as a Research Engineer in 1975. From 1982 to 1984 he was a Sales Director at

Rank Xerox Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * ...

and he returned to Nokia as a Sales Director for the Transmissions Systems Business Unit at a time when Nokia started its global expansion in its telecommunications networks business. After different roles with increasing responsibilities, he was appointed as President of Nokia Telecommunications and as Member of the Executive Board in 1993. In 1998, he was appointed President of Nokia Mobile Phones and in 2004 he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of the Nokia Group. Under Alahuhta's leadership from 2005 to 2014, KONE's global market share doubled and its market capitalization six folded. Matti Alahuhta has also been the Vice Chairman of Metso Outotec and a board member of ABB, the Chairman of Aalto University, The International Institute for Management Development IMD (Switzerland), The Confederation of Finnish Industries and The Technology Industries of Finland, Vice Chairman of the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation TEKES, and a board member of Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA.

Marriage and children

Matti Alahuhta is married to his wife Leena and they have two children.

Awards

In 1993, Matti Alahuhta was designated as a Knight for the 1st Class of the

Order of the White Rose of Finland The Order of the White Rose of Finland ( fi, Suomen Valkoisen Ruusun ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Vita Ros’ orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. ...

. In 2003, he was given the Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland and in 2013, Commander, First Class, of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. The European Business Press (EBP), representing 55 Europe's leading financial and economic publications in 28 countries, presented Matti Alahuhta the "European Manager of the Year 2009 Award”.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alahuhta, Matti 1952 births Living people Finnish businesspeople Nokia people Aalto University alumni People from Alahärmä