Ari - Pekka Salovaara

Ari-Pekka is Segment Director for SMB, where he holds responsibility for Visma’s rapidly growing SMB segment in the Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe. The SMB segment is focused on delivering top SaaS accounting and payroll solutions for small and medium businesses.

In his role, Ari-Pekka is committed to developing a strong and profitable SMB software ecosystem to accelerate growth and help Visma companies succeed. This involves leading the segment management team, setting budgets, participating on boards, and holding chair positions in a number of Visma companies.

Ari-Pekka joined the company in 2010 when Visma acquired Severa Oyj, an SaaS company that Ari-Pekka co-founded. He continued as Managing Director of Visma Solutions Oy until 2019, leading the company to a recurring revenue of over 70 M€ and recognition as a Great Place to Work for the last 9 years in a row.

Ari-Pekka is passionate about helping to build world-class companies, products, and teams. He is also engaged in a number of leadership activities related to IT innovation and entrepreneurship, including investments in tech startups, participation on numerous boards, pro-bono work, and mentoring of students and young entrepreneurs. Furthermore, he is a board member of Nordic Business Forum, a key owner of Oslo Business Forum.

Ari-Pekka holds a Master of Science in IT from LUT University in Finland.