MSc. (Econ) Jussi Kuutsa has been appointed as President of Itella Russia and a member of the Executive Board at Posti Group, starting January 1, 2017.
Kuutsa will transfer to Posti from SRV Plc, where he has been working as SVP of Business Operations in Russia since 2010. Before SRV he served as Development Director for Stockmann Plc's international operations in 2006-2010. His positions at Stockmann were director for international operations, Moscow area director and Moscow area manager at Stockmann's department store division.
Currently, Kuutsa is a member of the Board of Directors at Posti Group. He will now resign his membership.
According Heikki Malinen, President & CEO of Posti Group, a person with strong expertise and practical experience in the area of commerce and business management in Russia was sought for the position. Kuutsa has worked in management positions related to trade with Russia since 1991.
- Jussi has very long and extensive business experience in Russia and we are very pleased to get him to develop Itella Russia. Itella Russia maintains one of the focus areas in the updated Posti Group strategy, says Malinen.
The position become vacant when Nikolay Voinov, the current President of Russia, decided to leave the company to pursue new opportunities. Martin Nilsson, CFO of Itella Russia, will serve as acting President of the company until December 31, 2016.
- Posti is a familiar company and this new job is very interesting. Itella in Russia has a lot of opportunities as it is expanding from contract logistics to parcel delivery of e-commerce and into high-skill services such as pharmaceutical logistics. As the worst of the decline in the Russian economy appears to be behind us and the consumer e-commerce market will continue to grow by about 20%, I'm confident about the future, says Kuutsa.
Kuutsa will report to Heikki Malinen.
Itella Russia, a part of Posti Group, has been operating for 10 years now in the Russian market. The company operates all over Russia, from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok. It has offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Novorossiysk, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg and Vladivostok.