Tommi Mononen, Forest Director
”When I was young I didn’t think I’d end up working in forestry”, says Tommi Mononen, a grandson of Iivari Mononen.
“As a little boy, I used to go to the forest with Iivari. I’ve got some fond memories of that. But it’s the kind of thing one doesn’t appreciate until older.”
Tommi’s first summer job was in the deep-water harbour of Joensuu, at the warehouse and debarking plant of Iivari Mononen Oy. Tommi was tasked with marking each pole with its length and class.
“I learned some valuable life lessons there. You have to do things yourself, because nobody else is going to come and finish them for you”, Mononen reminisces.
After primary school, vocational school and military service, Tommi worked in Höljäkkä, before starting his business studies in Joensuu. Once he got his degree, Tommi returned to the wood treatment plant of Höljäkkä for a few more years, before moving on to wood procurement for Finn-Pylväs Oy.
“I worked for Finn-Pylväs for 15 years. First, I was a purveyor for a decade, and in the later years, my title was CEO. I got really familiar with all steps of the process, from procurement to export.”
Finn-Pylväs Oy was a family business, started by Tommi’s father Pauli Mononen in 1991. In the UK, there were and still are two companies that specialise in the manufacture of the treated pole. One of them was supplied by Iivari Mononen Oy; the other by Finn-Pylväs. All the companies worked side-by-side and in good harmony.
In 2015, Iivari Mononen Oy bought the long-established BBH wood treatment plant in the UK. The next year, Finn-Pylväs Oy was merged into Scanpole Oy. “We saw that there would be enough work for everyone and ended up uniting these two companies”, says Tommi Mononen.
“We saw that there would be enough work for everyone and ended up uniting these two companies”, says Tommi Mononen.
This wasn’t a great leap of faith by Mononen, him being a shareholder and having served in the boards of Iivari Mononen Oy and its subsidiaries from 2004.
Read more about the history of Iivari Mononen Group.
Supervisor of purveyors
Today, Tommi Mononen oversees wood procurement for Scanpole. The company has five senior purveyors who also handle the deals with the forest owners.
The company’s Norwegian procurement by Scanpole AS also falls on Tommi’s turf. These deals are done in cooperation with the local forestry companies.
In addition, he handles all the deals on products that Scanpole itself doesn’t use. “If necessary, we don’t end up buying just pole wood.”, Mononen explains. “If we’ve bought an entire stand marked for harvesting, we take as many poles as we can get. The rest of the logs and fibres are sold to nearby saw and pulp mills.”
“If we’ve bought an entire stand marked for harvesting, we take as many poles as we can get. The rest of the logs and fibres are sold to nearby saw and pulp mills.”
Tommi finds his work-life balance in versatile exercise. Depending on the season, he can choose between gym, skiing, swimming, mountain biking and forestry work. “I like combining things. Working in the forest is a great form of exercise and it’s a counterbalance for staring at the screen in the office. I call it brush saw therapy!”
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Tommi Mononen is a member of the board and the management team of Iivari Mononen Oy.
Scanpole is part of Iivari Mononen Group.
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