Vantaa, Uusimaa, Finland, December 2025 – Sonja Heiskanen has been elevated to the role of Head of People Culture and Development at Veikkaus, taking on company-wide responsibility for culture, competence and leadership development, as well as strategic People Partnering for key business units. In her new role, she leads a team of 15 HR and competence development specialists, oversees strategic workforce planning, and steers HR processes related to internationalisation. She also partners closely with Veikkaus International BU, Betting and iCasino BU and subsidiary Fennica Gaming, supporting the organisation’s broader transformation towards a licence-based operating model.
At Veikkaus, Sonja Heiskanen has played a pivotal role in driving the people agenda in a complex, fast-evolving money gaming environment. Before her elevation to Head of People Culture and Development, she spent nearly three years as HR Business Partner, supporting the Gaming Technologies BU, the Veikkaus International BU and Fennica Gaming. In that capacity, she focused on organisational design, development, and change management, contributing to major steps in Veikkaus’s transformation towards a licence model while serving on the HR Leadership Team and relevant functional management teams.
Prior to joining Veikkaus, Sonja Heiskanen worked as Senior HR Manager at Wärtsilä in Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland, providing local HR support to the Marine Voyage and Global Functions businesses with more than 1,000 employees in the energy and marine technology sector. In this role she specialised in employee engagement, employee relations and collaboration with employee representatives, labour law and collective agreements, cooperation negotiations, and compensation and benefits, while also supporting organisational changes and developing HR processes and ways of working in a global context.
Earlier, Sonja Heiskanen spent over six years as HR Manager at Fingrid Oyj, the Finnish transmission system operator. She was responsible for the HR function in an expert organisation of around 450 employees in the energy sector, covering employer branding, resource planning and recruitment, employee lifecycle management, competence management, rewards and wellbeing. She also managed key external stakeholders including payroll administration, occupational healthcare and insurance partners, worked closely with shop stewards on local labour agreements, and coordinated HR collaboration with other Nordic transmission system operators, while leading a five-person HR team.
Before her tenure at Fingrid, Sonja Heiskanen built and led the HR function at Innokas Medical, a healthcare technology company, across several progressive roles including HR Responsible, HR Manager and HR Director. Over nearly a decade, she developed HR structures, systems and processes, supported mergers and acquisitions, opened new offices including operations in Estonia, and handled cooperation negotiations. As a member of the management team and supervisor of multiple HR teams, she helped shape Innokas Medical’s people practices during a period of significant organisational growth and change.
Drawing on this extensive experience across the healthcare technology, energy and gaming sectors, Sonja Heiskanen now leads People Culture and Development at Veikkaus, bringing together strong operational HR expertise, strategic workforce planning capabilities and a deep understanding of Nordic labour relations to support the company’s ambition of becoming a respected and successful international gaming operator.
Veikkaus is Finland’s national gaming company, operating a wide portfolio of games for customers across the country. Guided by the values of caring, working together and courage, the company places responsible gaming and player wellbeing at the heart of its operations, continuously improving the customer experience while promoting safe and sustainable play.
With a clear goal of being a respected and successful international operator in the gambling industry, Veikkaus is evolving its business and operating model in line with regulatory developments and market expectations. Responsibility, transparency and long-term value creation are central to how Veikkaus develops its products, collaborates with stakeholders and contributes to Finnish society.
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