With a background in industrial engineering, Satu Vorma’s career has spanned several decades and covered a wide range of roles in both Finnish and global companies – from listed corporations to family-owned businesses. Several of these positions, including factory management, were not typically associated with women at the time.
One thread remained constant: an endless curiosity to explore different kinds of companies and operating environments, combined with a deep desire to keep learning. Her decision to strike out on her own was shaped by core values: staying grounded while thinking big, respecting people, nature, and organizations, and bringing solid business understanding to everything she does. She realized that if she ever wanted to start her own company – a dream she had quietly carried for some time – she would need to act soon.
Step one
This realization pointed her in the direction of sustainability consulting. Her interest in strategic thinking helped her map out a plan. The first step? Education. She enrolled in the Chamber of Commerce’s women’s leadership mentoring program, completed corporate responsibility training, and joined a board member education course. It was during one of those courses that a chance encounter set her dream in motion.
Vorma recalls seeing a woman giving a presentation whose CV showed IMD experience. Curious, Vorma approached her afterwards.
“And that was the day I discovered IMD,” she says. “It was a game changer.”
In March 2025, Vorma completed an Executive Certificate in Sustainable Business, becoming the first person in the world to finish the new IMD program. She emphasizes the profound impact that all IMD professors had on her – not only through their deep expertise, but also through their forward-looking mindset, collaborative spirit, and ability to challenge and inspire.
Vorma explains how she learned to adapt and implement this useful knowledge directly, which, as a consultant, is exactly what she needed.
Today, she is living her dream. She runs her own company and sees herself as a bridge between the complex world of sustainability and business. She notes that sustainability has become increasingly regulated, and more about compliance and reporting than meaningful change. She’d prefer to see sustainability as something that improves and redesigns business models, going hand-in-hand with innovation. She was especially inspired by Julia Binder’s perspective that sustainability should be viewed as a license to innovate – an opportunity to help companies do better, not just check boxes.
Making sense of sustainability
Vorma is currently supporting a large organization in creating its sustainability program. A central part of the work is to engage and empower stakeholders to ensure they feel genuinely part of both the direction and implementation of the sustainability efforts. She credits IMD with equipping her for this work, noting there are so many things she’s been able to take with her and apply with clients.
In the beginning, sustainability felt overwhelming – so many concepts, so many directions. She remembers wondering what it all meant, and that’s where she found her mission.
“I want to be the person who helps companies understand what to do with all this,” she says.
She encourages clients to start small, explaining that even focusing on one area of the bigger picture can be surprisingly expansive. Companies can’t focus on everything, so she helps them figure out what to prioritize, what to do first, and what matters most.
Her goal is to help businesses build sustainable competitive advantage – because, done smartly, sustainability can truly set a company apart. She believes that if companies approach this wisely, they can really differentiate themselves.
Vorma also serves as a board member of the Finnish alumni association. When she left Lausanne for the first time in 2023, she thought her IMD journey had come to an end – and that made her very sad. But now she doesn’t feel that way anymore, as staying connected to the alumni network means a lot to her.
More than that, she feels part of a global community.
“After my time at IMD, I have a platform,” she says. “I know there are people around the world and here in Finland who can, and want to, help. That’s a big deal to me, and it reminds me that impact grows through connection.”
