Kaisa Hietala

Kaisa Hietala is an experienced business and sustainability executive who helps companies to transform the challenges of environmental megatrends into business opportunities and growth. Ms. Hietala is an experienced leader in strategic transformation in the energy sector who began her career in upstream oil and gas exploration and crude oil trading. Ms. Hietala served as the EVP of Renewable Products at Neste, a petroleum refining and marketing company, for five years ending in 2019. During her tenure, the Renewable Products segment’s revenues grew by 1.6x and operating profits grew by 4x. She played a central role in the strategic transformation of Neste into the world’s largest and most profitable producer of renewable products, which was named by Harvard Business Review as one of the “Top 20 Business Transformations of the Last Decade” in 2019.
Currently, Ms. Hietala serves on the Boards of Exxon Mobil and Smurfit Westrock. She is the Founder and Chair of Greencode Ventures investing in digital green transition in Europe and serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of Oulu University. She was the co-owner and partner of Gaia Consulting, a sustainability business consultancy until 2021, and a former Board member of Kemira Oyj, a Finnish specialty chemicals company in 2016-2021. She also served as a board member of Rio Tinto Group from 2023-2025.
Ms. Hietala holds a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, UK and a Master of Science degree from University of Oulu, Finland. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in Technology by the University of Oulu in 2024. She is also a licensed personal trainer and enjoys outdoor sports.