Hospitals and Health Care
Professional Services
Technology, Information and Media
Manufacturing
Administrative and Support Services
Active

Heli Päätalo

Ph.D | Driving Scalable Operations & Operational Excellence & Growth

About Me

A results-driven operational excellence and product development & management SW professional with a proven record of scaling operations, optimizing performance, and driving cross-functional alignment in fast-growing organizations. Expert in operational strategy, financial management, process automation, and building high-performing teams. Recognized for transforming complex challenges into streamlined, profitable systems that support sustained growth and innovation. Adept at cross-functional leadership, executive stakeholder management, and leveraging data-driven methodologies to enhance efficiency, quality, and profitability. About 20 years of people leadership experience. Domestic and international work experience in China, the UK, Germany, Denmark, France, and the USA.

Jurisdiction

Finland

Notable Employer

  • Senior Consultant & Advisor at Acceletic, SpartaConsulting, Fellowmind
  • Quality Manager, Leadership Team Member at LMI Technologies Inc. (FocalPoint Inc.)
  • Quality Manager at Airbus Defence and Space
  • Senior Technology Manager, Senior manager at Nokia Mobile Phones
  • Head of SW Factory, Senior Quality Manager at Nokia Mobile Phones

Experience

Seniority LevelDirector
Years of Experience20+ years
Current StatusActive
Product Management Director, LT memberPATRIA
2024 - Present

- Leading Patria’s armored vehicles design and manufacturing scaling operations & operational excellence, and business model transformation - Defining and renewing key processes (portfolio and project management, and E2E product lifecycle management processes and practices) - Establishing scaling strategies via product structuring and reusability through design platform development and management, and productization practices, modularization, options, and product configurability development and improvement - Renewing product portfolio and product management operations and practices; cross-functional road mapping and governance model - Defining and launching product management and engineering KPIs & dashboards (product health, progress, quality) - Leading and overseeing productization, E2E product lifecycle management renewal, and implementation.

Senior Consultant & Advisor NotableAcceletic, SpartaConsulting, Fellowmind
2020 - 2025

- Consultant/sr project-program manager for the following global customer industries: Defence, Broadcasting and Telecom, Marine, Banking Corporations - KATIM, Digital14 (EDGE Group)/ Defence Industry; Leader of mission critical defence SW platform development program in roles as program manager, product owner, scrum master, and platform manager at Katim Secure Communications & Platform - Wärtsilä Marine; Management consulting; capturing, identifying, and concepting new ways and opportunities to utilize IoT, Agentic AI (e.g., automated decision-making at docking), and Machine Learning - Kone/Lifts and Escalators; Quality manager for Digital Solutions, AI, IoT, creating internal auditors’ training material - OP Group Bank; Leader of Anti-money laundering renewal program: process & system development - Digita/Broadcasting and Telecom; Leading Field Service renewal program; process development and ERP MS -Dynamics 365 implementation and rollout - Multiple other 3-6 months management consulting assignments in ERP renewal programs and operational excellence advisory

Quality Manager, Leadership Team MemberNotableLMI Technologies Inc. (FocalPoint Inc.)
2018 - 2020

- Mentoring and coaching management and engineering teams to improve performance and operational excellence - Establishing the company’s Quality and Business Management System (BMS, QMS) and performance and quality KPIs, enabling data-driven decision-making - Deploying systematic product portfolio & innovation management governance model, processes, and roadmapping practices - Implementing SAFe, Agile, and Lean frameworks and Lean Six Sigma - Standardizing and harmonizing the company’s engineering processes and systems

Quality ManagerNotableAirbus Defence and Space
2016 - 2018

- Leading the renewal and implementation of SW product development methods and practices; SAFe, Lean, Agile, and Lean Six Sigma methodologies - Leading the implementation of continuous improvement methods and tools - Mentoring and coaching management and engineering teams to improve overall function performance, and corrective action planning - Leader of ISO 9001, NATO, AQAP, and safety standards internal audit programs, and conduct internal audits and corrective action planning - Lead standards’ compliance and control activities

ConsultantIndustrial Process Automation Company PLC Group
2014 - 2014

Fixed-term project. Responsible for the creation and implementation of the company’s Business Management/Quality Management System.

Researcher and Ph.D. studentUniversity of Oulu/Information Technology
2012 - 2014

Research design, data gathering, analyses, and research reporting. Publishing own dissertation: http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/isbn978-952-62-0514-4

CIO, Leadership Team MemberNordlab Public Medical Laboratory
2012 - 2013

- Heading the company’s IM budgeting, solutions, digital services, and ICT infrastructure strategic planning and implementation, coordinating internal and suppliers’ ICT activities - Leading laboratory information management systems compliance -Leader of major organizational change and transition - Managing and monitoring budgets, and ICT Purchasing operations

Senior Technology Manager, Senior managerNotableNokia Mobile Phones
2005 - 2013

- Leader of new technologies and business/customer/market opportunity analyses, and technology and product road mapping - Leading mobile products’ SW engineering and product PLM management framework - Chair of the global Nokia Technology Innovation Board - Leader of global Agile and Lean transformation change programs - Leading the implementation of Lean Six Sigma quality methods in product and SW engineering - Head of Project Management Office (PMO)

Head of SW Factory, Senior Quality ManagerNotableNokia Mobile Phones
1999 - 2005

- Heading global mobile SW Factory; deliveries, operations, SW platform development, and productization planning - Cross-functional partnering - Coaching and leading the implementation of renewed SW engineering scaling best practices and methods - Leading the ramp-up of mobile SW factory and key processes - Leader of scaling mobile SW through SW platforms - Chair of Nokia global SW Quality Board - Leading quality management system compliance, development and implementation (TQM, L6S, PDCA…) - Mentoring and coaching engineering teams for quality and continuous improvement - Leading various sizes of global multicultural and cross-functional operations, teams, programs up to 90+ people

Education

Doctorate of Information TechnologyUniversity of Oulu
2012 - 2014
Masters of Organizational Anthropology (Humanities)University of Oulu
2008 - 2014
Masters of Business Management and AdministrationUniversity of Oulu /Faculty of Economics
2007 - 2010
Masters of Information Technology University of Oulu /Information Technology
1994 - 2001

Certification

Total Certifications8

CBM/HHJ Certified Board Member

Chamber of Commerce Finland

Digital Business Strategy

MIT Sloan School of Business Management

Corporate Innovation, Strategies for leveraging ecosystems

MIT Sloan School of Business Management

MIT Sloan School of Business Management

Organizational Design for digital transformations

ISO 9001 Lead Auditor

Bureau Veritas

Lean Six Sigma Black and Green Belt

ProSource

Product Owner

MountainGoat

Scrum Master

Scrum Org

Skills

Core skills0
Languages2

Languages

Finnish
English (British)