Govt reshuffles Posti

The government on Thursday launched a major reshuffle in the state-owned postal and logistic services operator Posti, with Sanna Suvanto-Harsaae named as its new chairman and half of the nine board members replaced, reported news agency Xinhua.

Posti will face a "complex change during the upcoming four critical years," Suvanto-Harsaae said in a media release.

Maija Strandberg, a senior financial counsellor in the Prime Minister's Office, told business daily Kauppalehti on Thursday that the state wanted more people and labor market experts on the board.

Denying any "active plans" to make Posti a public company, Strandberg said that the chairman and the state are pondering on "strategic alternatives."

Posti was plagued by a long strike in November 2019, and then Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne said that the company had not followed instructions from his cabinet. Rinne resigned in December in the wake of the postal strike.

Suvanto-Harsaae, a Finnish businessperson who has been the head of 30 different companies, was described by local media as an experienced board member in several Nordic companies. She has also ranked first in the list of female decision-makers published by Finnish business week Talouselama.

With around 22,000 employees, Posti had an annual turnover of 1.5 billion euros last year.