Overview
Merja Eskola is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Helsinki office and a member of the global CEO & Board of Directors, Industrial, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Heidrick Consulting practices. She focuses on the board and CEO levels across a wide range of industries. Merja is a skilled leader with experience in multiple senior leadership roles, most recently as the partner in charge of Heidrick & Struggles Finland.
Experience
Merja is a trusted advisor in the C-suite and board space, specializing in CEO and senior executive roles, board recruitments and board accelerator reviews, leadership assessments, top team and executive coaching, and other leadership advisory services.
With more than 25 years of experience, she collaborates with a diverse set of clients in public, private equity, and family-owned businesses across different industries, including energy, construction, building systems, mining and metals, technology, professional services, financial services, consumer markets, health care, and life sciences.
Before joining Heidrick & Struggles, Merja was the CHRO and group management board member of Caverion, a building systems company with EUR 2,3 billion in net sales. Previously, she was the global head of HR for a services business and global vice president of human capital development at Outotec, now Metso, a mining and metals technology business with EUR 1,9 billion in net sales. Before that, she was the global head of human capital development for a leading manufacturer of consumer packaging company, Huhtamäki, with EUR 2,3 billion in net sales. Before her industrial and corporate career, Merja was a partner in management consulting and automotive retail businesses.
Merja is a certified executive coach, Heidrick-certified leader, and team accelerator coach on several assessment tools. She is fluent in English, Finnish, and conversational Swedish.
Education
Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School, Master’s Degree studies in Organizational Change
University of San Francisco, MBA in Digital Business
London Business School, Future of Work Research Consortium
Turku University of Applied Sciences, BBA in Foreign Trade