Floorball helps you take your mind off Posiva’s financial control
Riikka Hakala started as Business Controller in Posiva’s Management Group.
In early September, Riikka Hakala, 38, started as Posiva’s Business Controller and a member of its Management Group. Prior to this, she had already introduced herself to her new colleagues and participated in the strategy day event for Posiva’s Board of Directors, senior management and committee chairs that was held at the Hirvihaara Manor in Mäntsälä.
In the Management Group, the Business Controller supports the company's financial control, participates in strategic planning and develops the cost calculation model for final disposal as well as the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
- While the details of my role will likely be specified during the autumn, my tasks include developing the calculation model for Posiva’s production costs, its budgeting, forecast and scenario preparation as well as the follow-up of the company’s financial value creation. And, of, course we must not forget about Posiva Solutions, the subsidiary, Hakala says.
-My objective is to generate discernible added value by monitoring financial performance and value creation. I am looking forward to transparent and active collaboration with the Posiva team.
In her earlier position in the TVO Group’s finance competence centre, Hakala was the Engineering business partner and responsible for TVO’s IFRS reporting and the preparation of the financial statements and the ESEF report. In practice, this meant reporting according to international standards and in a format that made the reports comparable to and analysable in a similar manner to other publicly listed companies.
A great time to transfer to Posiva
According to Hakala, the timing of her transfer is excellent.
- Posiva is starting the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel as the first company in the world. This is wonderful. Posiva is also transitioning to the production stage, that is, doing everything for the first time. Creating financial reporting at this stage is extremely exciting.
Hakala says that TVO’s shareholder value programmes also extend to Posiva. While this creates new challenges, it also provides opportunities to develop operations according to methods that have been found to work at TVO.
- The monitoring and development of financial reporting and value creation at Posiva Solutions give their own twist to this.
Floorball and supporting children’s hobbies
Riikka Hakala has a stern answer to this question:
- I don’t do calculations in my free time.
According to her, a floorball pitch is a suitable place for forgetting about calculations and financial control. Hakala plays in the 3rd division as part of Eurajoen Veikot’s representative female team.
Alongside floorball, Hakala’s free time is occupied by her husband Kari Hakala, who works at TVO as a project manager, and their children, aged 13, 11 and 8. The two eldest children are girls, their youngest is a boy. The family lives in Eurajoki and shares their home with Tico, a six-year-old Finnish hound.
- My two youngest children also play floorball, and both of my girls ride horses. This means that a lot of my free time is spent around floorball pitches and riding arenas. My husband hunts with our dog and is joined by the rest of the family on occasion.
Riikka Hakala has been working at Olkiluoto for 15 years already. She has, of course, spent periods at home with the children, but her tasks in finance have also remained interesting all along.
- I came to Olkiluoto and TVO in 2010, when I joined the OL3 project as a cost accountant. During my first year, I also completed my pro gradu thesis for the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics at TVO.
Even then, Riikka Hakala was already ahead of her time and preparing for the future. You see, her thesis was about the plan for decommissioning OL3.
Story by Pasi Tuohimaa, photos by Pasi Tuohimaa and Riikka Hakala’s home archives