Jorma Jaakko Ollila (born 15 August 1950) is a Finnish businessman who was chairman of Royal Dutch Shell from 1 June 2006 to May 2015, and at Nokia Corporation chairman from 1999 to 2012 and CEO from 1992 to 2006. He has been a director of Otava Books and Magazines Group Ltd. since 1996 and UPM-Kymmene since 1997, and an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, a New York–based boutique investment bank founded by Joseph R. Perella and Peter Weinberg in 2006.
For Nokia, he was credited with turning the company into the then world's largest mobile phone maker.
Contents
Education
After elementary school in Kirkon koulu, Kurikka, Finland, Ollila went to high school in Vaasan Lyseon Lukio, Vaasa, with the help of a scholarship at the United World College of the Atlantic, where he earned his 'A' levels.
Thereafter, he obtained a Master of Political Science from University of Helsinki, a Master of Science (Economics) from London School of Economics and a Master of Science (Technology) in Engineering Physics from Helsinki University of Technology.
In 2003, he was elected an honorary fellow of the London School of Economics, and was awarded honorary membership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Ollila has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Helsinki, London School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Vaasa.
Ollila was active in student politics, for example as the chairman of the Finnish association of student unions in 1973 and 1974, and still today participates in Finnish political debate. As a conscript in the Finnish Defence Forces, he received reserve officer training. While attending the Finnish Reserve Officer School he was the chairman of his reserve officer course.
Career
Prior to joining Nokia in 1985, Ollila worked for eight years in corporate banking at Citibank's London and Helsinki offices, and when he joined Nokia his tasks involved international investment deals. A year later, in 1986, Ollila was head of finance during Nokia's renewal under then CEO Kari Kairamo. He was appointed as chief of the mobile phones section in 1990, and CEO two years later in 1992. When Ollila first came to power, the company had suffered from internal disputes and had a financial crisis of a number of years.
As CEO of Nokia he has led the strategy that restructured the former industrial conglomerate into one of the major companies in the mobile phone and telecommunications infrastructure markets.
In 1999, Ollila considered taking part in the Finnish presidential election, following a request from Sauli Niinistö, a member of the National Coalition Party, who was at that time Finnish finance minister and who 12 years later became President of Finland himself. This despite that Ollila belongs to a different party, the Finnish Centre party, which he has been involved with since his activities in student politics at the University of Helsinki.
Ollila was the CEO of Nokia from 1999 to 2006. He was succeeded as CEO by Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. On 15 September 2010, he announced he intended to step down as Chairman in 2012 and did so on 3 May 2012. He was replaced by Risto Siilasmaa.
Ollila said in a February 2011 interview with Finnish broadcaster Yle that he supported the Nokia-Microsoft partnership initiated by the CEO, Stephen Elop, and predicted the company's fortunes will strongly recover.
In a book published in September 2018 by Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa and presented to the Helsingin Sanomat, Ollila's leadership style was strongly criticised and Siilasmaa revealed that the two had fallen out in 2010 (Siilasmaa was a Nokia board member from 2008). Siilasmaa also claims that he believes Ollila played a part in the company's downfall. In response, Ollila claimed that this was exaggerated and not true.
Ollila was chairman of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA), the most reputed economic and social studies think tank in Finland. Between 2005 and 2009, he was chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT).
Others
Ollila is a member of the steering committee at the Bilderberg Group. He participated in the 1994 conference and in every Bilderberg conference between 1997 and 2014.
Energy
Shell ended wind power development during the Ollila period. The oil company insists it cannot make the numbers add up to justify offshore windfarms.
Publications
Ollila published his memoirs in Finnish in October 2013. Ollila had recruited four security guards for his book launch event in Helsinki in October 2013. Helsinki police say the protesters or presumed activists were expelled from the book launch. The English translation of his memoirs was published in 2016.