Pekka Vauramo

Pekka Vauramo has been appointed to replace Kalmar Industries president Christer Granskog when he retires on October 1.

Vauramo, 50, is the president of the global underground hard rock mining division at Sandvik Mining and Construction. He is also the managing director of Finland-based Sandvik Mining and Construction Oy.

Granskog, 59, will leave Kalmar by the end of 2007, after overseeing the transition.

Mikael Mäkinen, president of Kalmar's parent company Cargotec, praises Granskog's contribution to Kalmar's current successes.

"Kalmar has been successfully transformed from a manufacturing company into a global customer- and services-oriented company with a strong assembly set-up.
Through several acquisitions, Kalmar has developed into a unified global business."

Mäkinen also praised Vauramo as having a strong track record of growing profitability for a global business.

"Many of the challenges in the global scale and customer needs [at Sandvik] are similar to what we want to further develop within Kalmar. I am confident Pekka's experience and skills will contribute markedly as we continue to build Kalmar into the undisputed market leader, providing the most productive solutions in order to help our customers respond to the increasing demands on cargo handling speed and efficiency".

Vauramo, who has a Master's degree from the Helsinki University of Technology in Espoo, Finland, has worked at Sandvik since 1985. He has been based at the company's offices in Finland, Canada, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.