Mikko Välimaa, Health, Safety and Environment Director

I joined Konecranes in 2017 and I'm working as the head of health, safety and environment in the Business Area Industrial Equipment. I began my career with sustainability, working with issues regarding environmental and social responsibility. Later on, I started to focus more on health and safety issues.

Konecranes attracted me due to its image of technical expertise and the growth path that it's currently on. Working in an organization in a high-level of transition is always exciting. Konecranes is an interesting mix of being a global company with its corporate ways of working and a very entrepreneurial spirit. I haven't bumped into a lot of hierarchies and having debates and dialogues within the corporation is very easy.

The people I work with make it fun to come to work every day, be it at my office or in the operations. I love going out, meeting the people, be it in their manufacturing sites or at their customer sites where the magic happens.

I love my role as a business partner, translating group requirements and targets into practical level within the operations. The most important mark my work can leave is to ensure that safety is in the DNA of all of our employees. I also love our safety monthly calls where we get to share best practices and share learnings and what gets me excited is when people are able to learn from each other and they are able to implement what they learned within their own operations.

It's easy to get excited about safety. The target is to make sure that everyone of us gets to go home to their families, to their loved ones, safe and healthy every day. There can't be any bigger target than that.