Anu Pires

Anu Pires leads Valmet's EVP People, Communications and Culture function since July 2025. Prior to that, she led Valmet's HR function since September 2024. An experienced HR leader who has gained extensive international experience by working in many multinational companies across several countries, covering both industrial and consumer businesses, Pires brings a career spanning more than two decades in human resources leadership across global organizations.

Anu holds an M.Sc. in Economics from Jyväskylä School of Economics and Business Administration and completed a Master's Degree in Marketing, Business administration and Italian language between 1992-1997 at Jyväskylä School of Economics and Business Administration. She is described as a globally experienced HR leader with proven ability to deliver results and adjust within growth, market leadership & turnaround business phases, characterized as a positive, energetic and action-oriented leader driven by supporting others to grow and succeed.

Career history

• EVP, People, Communications and Culture – Valmet (July 2025–present)
• SVP, Human Resources – Valmet (September 2024–July 2025)
• SVP, Human Resources – Paulig Group (2018–2024)
• VP of HR – Lumene (2017–2018)
• Various HR management positions – Outotec (2016–2017)
• Head of HR, APAC Mobile Device Sales, Nokia integration – Microsoft in Singapore (2014–2015)
• HR management roles – Nokia (1998–2014, working in Finland, Brazil, China, and India)
• HR trainee and specialist – Valmet (1996–1998)

What Anu Pires could bring to her EVP role at Valmet: With over 30 years of progressive HR leadership across industrial and consumer sectors at global companies including Nokia, Microsoft, Outotec, and Paulig, Pires brings strategic people transformation expertise particularly suited to managing organizational change, international talent management, and culture building at scale. Her expanded mandate now includes communications and culture—domains where her track record of leading through complex transitions and her demonstrated commitment to supporting organizational growth position her to drive comprehensive people strategy alignment across Valmet's 19,000+ global workforce.