OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2011. Estonian Air announces that the Supervisory Council of Estonian Air has appointed four new Management Board members. Wade Stokes takes the position of Chief Financial Officer and Jyri Ketola Chief Operating Officer. In addition, the Supervisory Council has appointed Signe Vaks-Saareoja, the Chief People Officer, and Rauno Parras, Chief Commercial Officer, as new Management Board members. Altogether with Tero Taskila, the CEO of Estonian Air, the Management Board has five members, reported the press-centre of Estonian Air.

Wade Stokes will join the company as the Chief Financial Officer. He has long financial management experience from the telecommunications and banking sectors in the U.S., Russia and Scandinavia. Wade Stokes joins Estonian Air from Swedbank Group.

Jyri Ketola will take the position of Estonian Air’s new Chief Operating Officer from September 15. Mr. Ketola has 25 years of leadership experience in airport and aviation services in Finland, Sweden and the U.S. He has held various positions in the area of Operations and Security in the companies such as Finnair and BLUE1/ SAS Group. Mr Ketola will take the position over from the current COO Rait Kalda.

Rauno Parras will continue as the Chief Commercial Officer. Mr Parras has worked for SAS, before joining Estonian Air in 2006. Since then he has held different executive positions.

Signe Vaks-Saareoja joined Estonian Air as Human Recources Manager in 2009. Ms Vaks-Saareoja, currently the Estonian Air’s Chief People Officer, has a professional experience from banking sector, where she worked as the Head of Recruitment Centre and Training Centre, and Development area of Swedbank.

Tero Taskila, who joined Estonian Air as CEO in June, proposed to the Board new members based on their international know-how and business experience. „Estonian Air will continue being a national carrier but the knowledge and skills of the new management members will strengthen our position in the international aviation industry,“ Taskila said.