Stock Exchange Release 17 November 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
Following the announcement by Chairman of the Board Heiner Olbrich that he will step down from his position as Chairman, the Board of Directors of Harvia Oyj has, in its meeting on 17 November 2025, elected from among its members Vice Chairman of the Board Catharina Stackelberg-Hammarén as the new Chairman of the Board. Stackelberg-Hammarén succeeds Olbrich in the position. Olbrich has served as a member of Harvia’s Board of Directors since 2022 and as Chairman since 2024. The aim of the change is to ensure the seamless continuity of the Board’s work following Olbrich’s announcement that he will step down from his position as Chairman, and that he will not be available for re-election to the Board at the Annual General Meeting in April 2026 due to personal reasons. Olbrich will continue as a Board member until the end of the current term. Markus Lengauer was elected Vice Chairman.
Catharina Stackelberg-Hammarén has served as a member of Harvia’s Board of Directors since 2023, and as Vice Chairman and a member of the Board’s Human Resources and Remuneration Committee since 2024.
With the change in the Chairman of the Board, the Board also decided on changes to the composition of the Board committees. As of 17 November 2025, they are as follows:
Human Resources and Remuneration Committee: Chairman Catharina Stackelberg-Hammarén, members Anders Holmén and Olli Liitola.
Audit Committee: Chairman Petri Castrén, members Hille Korhonen and Markus Lengauer.
As Chairman of Harvia’s Board of Directors, Catharina Stackelberg-Hammarén will, starting from her election as Chairman, serve as an expert in Harvia Oyj’s Shareholders’ Nomination Board in place of Heiner Olbrich, without being a member of the committee. The Nomination Board will submit its proposal for Board members to the company’s Board of Directors for the Annual General Meeting no later than 31 January 2026.
At one point, I didn’t invest in tires because Hille Korhonen was the CEO. And when I heard information from someone who worked there, I apparently made the right decision.
The role of board work is, of course, different. Is there any information and/or insight here regarding Hille’s competence and added value for board work at Harvia?
Hille Korhonen’s track record in operational activities isn’t very flattering. Of course, on the board, she is just one among others, and naturally, these days, when there needs to be an equal distribution of members, that can give a boost to some.
It’s a pity that Mr. Olbrich had to step down from the position after a rather short (1.5-year) chairmanship. But Harvia will surely do well under someone else’s leadership too. The change seems to stem from Olbrich’s own reasons, so it’s unlikely to have much of an impact on the company.
Hille certainly has a long career in leading consumer product companies, which should be a perfectly suitable background for Harvia. The stint leading Renkaat was not very successful, but otherwise, I cannot evaluate him.
I follow Almost Heaven’s online store from time to time; it seems that delivery times have stretched during the autumn from about 3 weeks in the summer to the current two months. Based on that, one could assume sales have been good if there haven’t been any major bottlenecks in production. Through Costco, one can certainly get it a bit faster, usually always 3-4 weeks delivery. In my opinion, there’s also more value for the customer in those Almost Heaven packages priced by Costco. Of course, for Harvia, it’s certainly a clearly lower-margin business than sales obtained through their own online store.
Are there still people on the forum following these numbers more closely or following European resellers? I’d be interested to hear views on the current situation. My own monitoring is mainly occasional glances without any precise tabulation. My long-term trust in Harvia is strong, and the intention is to stay invested for at least 5-10 years, if nothing unexpected happens.
