CV: Learn more from LinkedIn

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Founder & CEO: Sofia Solutions Oy, 2025–
Helping organisations bring clarity to complexity, execute strategy, and lead meaningful change. Services from strategy execution and transformation programs to leadership facilitation and PMO design.

Portfolio Lead: Neste, Renewable Products, 2024–2025
Unified portfolio and governance across Renewable Diesel, SAF and Polymers & Chemicals business units; established portfolio practices and prioritisation, risk and reporting frameworks.

Portfolio Manager: Neste, Renewable Road Transportation, 2020–2024
Built the BU's first integrated project portfolio; led cross-functional Public Affairs program (200+ external stakeholders, 4 ExCo sponsors); led B2C sales project for Sweden, developed workload planning, strategy execution and risk frameworks.

Senior / Management Consultant: PwC Finland, 2017–2020
Regulatory and business transformations projects for clients in finance, manufacturing, and forest industries. Examples include MiFID II transformation (SAFe), process harmonisation, multi-vendor IT negotiation and supply chain strategy design.

Executive Assistant, Project Manager, Assistant Manager: Stockmann 2012–2017
Drove transformation and development projects within the Finnish Department Store organisation; roles in management team support, communication projects, and customer experience improvement. Last position leading a sales team of 27.

VOLUNTEERING WORK

Pro Bono, COO & CFO: Small Family-Owned Company

Volunteered to support a family-owned business through operational and financial restructuring. Oversaw workforce planning, B2B and B2C sales, marketing, organisation of international events, cash flow and accounting while coaching the CEO.

EDUCATION

IMD Business School (Lausanne, 2022-2023): Neste Leadership Development Program: Nominated based on outstanding performance and leadership potential.

Master’s degree in Global Political Economy (World Politics, University of Helsinki 2015), with additional studies in Business Law and Marketing at Aalto University, School of Business.

LANGUAGES

Finnish (native). English (fluent), French (advanced), Spanish (advanced), Swedish (basic)

References

“Sofia is a true people person, effortlessly building strong relationships with internal stakeholders and ensuring seamless collaboration across teams. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for a dedicated and skilled professional who excels in stakeholder management, strategic project prioritisation, risk mitigation, and aligning initiatives with broader business goals.”

— Jenni Männistö, VP Strategy & Business Development, Neste, Jan 27th 2025

“I was consistently impressed by her strong project management skills and proactive work ethic. She managed our project portfolio with exceptional diligence... Her ability to suggest innovative solutions, especially under tight resource constraints, demonstrated both creativity and leadership.”

— Carrie Song, SVP, Sales, Renewable Fuels, Neste, Jul 21st 2025

“Sofia is highly skilled in orchestrating multi-stakeholder projects. She is doing this with a hands on mind set, intrinsic motivation and taking people along with clear structures. She holds the right level of empathy enabling that people feel understood and taken along.”

— Jörg Hübeler, Head of Global Accounts, Neste, May 6th 2025

“She showed great professionalism in her field of Project portfolio management together with impressive levels of empathy and resilience. From onboarding new project leads to tools and processes, following up and sparring I always found my interactions with Sofia valuable, efficient and enjoyable.”

— Gauthier Tardy, Offering Development, Neste, Jan 9th 2025

“When I need someone to take a tight grip on project, Sofia is my choice. She can keep things moving and get things done whether or not we are working on her area of expertise. This makes her invaluable asset for a variety of challenges.”

— Kalle Kinnunen, Senior Management Consultant, PwC Finland, Jan 7th 2020

“She always thinks of the best solutions for the client and has earned many clients' trust by doing so... It is a pleasure working with Sofia.”

— Jani Sydänmaanlakka, Director at PwC Finland, Jan 14th 2020

“Sofia has a great ability to see the big picture but not to forget the most important details. She gets things done and her high level of positive energy is admirable. She is customer orientated and intelligent team player with ‘can do’-attitude.”

— Kristina Inkiläinen, Retail professional, CEO, Oct 18th 2019

“Working with Sofia was a great pleasure, especially because of her immense dedication towards her duties, her never ending positive and problem-solving attitude... She was a truly valuable colleague with whom I would work again at any time and can honestly recommend her.”

— Tuija Wänttinen, Real Estate & Retail Professional, Sep 24th 2019

Project Examples

STRATEGY EXECUTION

• Renewable Products Portfolio Consolidation (Energy, Neste, 2024–2025): Combined three portfolios after reorganisation, aligning them with strategic direction together with the Leadership team.

• Public Affairs Program Lead (Energy, Neste, 2020–2022): Led cross-functional initiative with +20 experts, +220 external stakeholders, and Neste Executive Committee members.

• Annual Strategy-to-Execution Cycle (Energy, Neste, 2021–2024): Defined development needs for strategy execution and led idea definition process across the organisation.

• B2C Sales Project for Swedish Market (Energy, Neste, 2020): Project Manager, led collaboration between Neste and client.

• Supply Chain Strategy Development (Retail, PwC, 2019)

• Sales & Customer Experience Development (Retail, Stockmann, 2015, 2017)

TRANSFORMATIONS

• Operational & Financial Restructuring (Small company, 2025): Led business turnaround through financial planning, sales and operational development.

• Portfolio & PMO Creation, Renewable Diesel (Energy, Neste, 2020–2022): Established portfolio management model and led the portfolio of +20 FTEs, delivering strategic initiatives.

• MiFID II Transformation Program (Banking, PwC, 2017–2018): Stream lead for customer communication and of renewing B2C contracts in EU-wide regulatory transformation under the SAFe framework.

• Business Process Harmonisation (Forestry, PwC, 2018–2019): Led Sales, Marketing and Product Management streams in global process redesign.

• Sales Team's Incentive Renewal (Retail, Stockmann, 2016-2017)

• Tapiola Department Store Opening (Retail, Stockmann, 2016)

• Organisational Transformation (Retail, Stockmann, 2013 & 2016)

LEADERSHIP & FACILITATION

• Business Risk Management Redesign (Energy, Neste, 2021–2023): Facilitated Leadership team work on risk management and coordinated cross-functional implementation.

• Project Management Capability Building (Energy, Neste, 2021–2022): Developed PM and workload practices across BUs and functions.

• Multi-Stakeholder IT Vendor Negotiation (Banking, PwC, 2018): Facilitated complex negotiation between multiple IT vendors, banks and legal teams (Temenos T24 system).

• Event Host & Master of Ceremonies, (Energy Neste, 2023)

• International Arts Festivals (Arts, 2025): Led execution of two festivals including stakeholder & vendor management, budgeting and sales.

• CEO Coaching, (Small company, 2025): Coaching on leadership practices & styles, wellbeing, communication and change management

• Internal Communication Development (Retail, Stockmann, 2015–2016): Created communications structure and practices for department stores.