With her impressive 32 years at Wärtsilä, Inari Räikkönen, Executive Assistant, is a familiar and friendly face to many Wärtsilians. She worked with five CEOs and is one of those people who knows everything. She is also someone you can rely on even with the oddest ask.
Inari is a person who does not like to make a fuss about herself and would rather stay in the shadows. As part of our 190th-anniversary celebrations, we want to highlight our remarkable employees like Inari, and we managed to get her to share her exciting story of making a difference.
Inari retired a few years back, but she still remembers opening the office door on her first day at Wärtsilä in August 1989. As an executive assistant, she experienced how technology transformed our ways of working. From sending documents via telefax to using email and starting to use the internet and from personnel papers to building an intranet, Inari has kept transforming to keep up with the ever-quickening pace. Still, she sees that her work supporting the CEO has remained unchanged.
As an assistant, you need to be prepared for constant change. Days never go as you plan and at times it was challenging but Inari feels that she could use her full potential every day. She was also able to visit numerous countries during her years and met many of her close colleagues face-to-face. The personal relationships are what she values the most.
Over the years, there have been various twists and turns and even different names for the company. Wärtsilä was called Metra for some years, and the name was changed back to Wärtsilä, which was welcomed both by the employees and the shareholders. Inari remembers the spontaneous applause in the Annual General Meeting in 2000 when it was decided to use the name Wärtsilä again.
Inari sees Wärtsilä as an interesting, global company that has always had its finger on the pulse, innovating, transforming, and moving from machinery to solutions, shaping decarbonisation and being more and more environmentally conscious.
