Annual Report 2018
Corporate Governance Statement
Reporting Period Jan. 1–Dec. 31, 2018
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Description of Activities

The Board of Directors has defined a working order and evaluates its performance annually. The Board of Directors shall implement the decisions of the General Meeting. The Board of Directors supervises the operations and management. The Board of Directors makes decisions on the Company´s guiding principles for operation, strategy and budget. The Board of Directors decides on mergers and acquisitions and other strategic alliances as well as significant investments and significant matters regarding organization and finance. The Board of Directors supervises that the Group companies´ accounting and financial management is duly organized. The Board of Directors appoints the CEO and possible Deputy for him or her as well as approves the Company´s organizational structure.

The CEO, CFO and Chief Legal Officer (who acts as secretary of the Board of Directors) attend the meetings of the Board of Directors. Other management attends the meetings when necessary or upon invitation by the Board of Directors. The Chairman of the Board approves the agendas of the meetings of the Board of Directors. The agendas are prepared by the CEO and the Chief Legal Officer.

An annual clock, according to which the regular subjects to be handled are determined, is applied in the Board´s work. In addition to the regular subjects of the annual clock, the most important subjects of the Board during the year were seeking for international growth and focusing R&D investments.

The Annual General Meeting decides on the compensation of the members of the Board of Directors and the compensations can be publicly reviewed on the Company´s website at www.bittium.com.

 

Diversity Principles  of the Board of Directors

In the Company, diversity is seen as an essential part of corporate responsibility and as a factor in success, that enables achievement of strategic targets and continuous improvement of customer intimacy.

In planning the composition of the Board of Directors, the requirements of the Company´s business operations, the phase of development and the competence requirements of the Board committees are taken into account. In appointing members of the Board the target is to ensure that the Board as a whole supports the development of the Company´s current and future business operations. Diversity plays a part in supporting this goal, so the Company aims to reach a situation where the facts supporting diversity are taken into account as significant criteria in planning the composition of the Board of Directors.

Diversity is considered from different perspectives. From the Company´s point of view it is important to have Board members with diverse backgrounds in terms of competence, training, and experience of differing business operations, of varying stages of business development, and of leadership as well as diverse personal characteristics. Experience of international business environments and different cultures in addition to consideration of age and gender will support the diversity of the Board. The objective is that both genders are represented in the Board and the Company aims to maintain a good and balanced distribution of genders.

To fulfill the diversity principles, the principles are taken into account in the process to find and assess member candidates and representatives of both genders are looked for to the process. The status of diversity and progress of the goal mentioned above is monitored in the self-assessment discussions of the Board. A person elected as a Board member of the Company must have the competence required for the position and be able to devote a sufficient amount of time for the duties required. In forming the composition of the Board long-term needs and successor planning will be taken into account.

According to the Articles of Association, the Board of Directors comprises three to seven (3–7) members and in addition it may have one to three (1–3) deputy members. The composition of the Board and the number of members shall be such that they enable the Board to perform its duties efficiently. The members of the Board are appointed annually at the Company´s Annual General Meeting.

During the financial period of January 1, 2018–December 31, 2018, the Board of Directors comprised six members. Five of the members have been male and one female. The self-assessment discussions of the Board have concluded that the members of the Board are so different in their special skills, backgrounds, age and gender that the Board as a whole has therefore been able to effectively support the business of the Company and its development.

In 2018, the Board convened 12 times.

The Board members attended to the meetings as follows:

January 1–December 31, 2018 Board Audit committee
Erkki Veikkolainen 12/12  
Juha Putkiranta 12/12 4/4
Seppo Mäkinen 12/12  
Tero Ojanperä 12/12  
Riitta Tiuraniemi 9/9 4/4
Petri Toljamo 9/9  
Kirsi Komi 3/3 2/2
Staffan Simberg 3/3 2/2
Seppo Laine (external advisor of the Board)   6/6