Merja Eskola is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Helsinki and Stockholm offices and a member of Heidrick Consulting, and a member of the global Industrial, Technology, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Human Resources Officers practices. She helps clients accelerate performance through top-class leadership advisory and executive search services for domestic and international companies at the board, CEO, executive team, VP, and director levels. With more than 25 years of senior management experience in business, HR, and management consulting, Merja works within strategy, transformation, and leadership capability building with medium-size to global clients across a number of industries, organizations, and cultures. She consults, coaches, hires, and assesses CEOs and senior leaders, and develops organizations and multicultural teams in different life cycles of businesses, in more than 30 countries across six continents. Merja knows how high performing leaders and teams can be significant differentiators and competitive advantage for companies. She combines her client-focused business experience in leadership development methodologies with a practical execution approach. She understands organizational change from a structural, psychological, and social dynamics point of view. Her positive energy, creativeness, and professional approach to coaching, facilitation and project management, and modern ways of working to achieve targets and client success are at the heart of her collaboration with each client. Prior to joining Heidrick, Merja was the CHRO, group management board member, and secretary of the HR Committee of Caverion Oyj. She was also a member of several boards in a building systems business of 17.000 employees with EUR 2,3 billion net sales. She was the global head of HR for a services business and global vice president human capital development at Outotec Oyj, a mining and metals technology business of 5.000 employees with EUR 1,9 billion net sales. Before that she was the global head of human resources development for a leading manufacturer of consumer packaging company, Huhtamäki Oyj, with 14.600 employees and EUR 2,3 billion net sales. Earlier in her career, Merja was a partner, executive consultant, and a member of the leadership team at a leading Finnish-based management consultancy, Talent Partners Ltd, serving big domestic and international corporations and public sector organizations for more than 15 years.