Dr. Sami Itani is a diversely skilled management professional and scholar. He has both theoretical expertise and practical experience, for instance, from corporate socio-cultural responsibility, such as diversity & inclusion –related practices and strategies, performance and talent management in knowledge intensive organizations, stakeholder management, mergers and acquisitions with a particular focus on cultural due diligence, and strategy formation and implementation in internationally operating organizations.

Dr. Itani is a much-requested keynote speaker in corporate, governmental and NGO events especially in questions relating to organizational social responsibility. Itani has actively engaged in public discussion on contemporary leadership questions, e.g., in times of Covid-19 and when well-known institutions have faced lack of trust from their stakeholders. Itani has published a book on HRM in multinational organizations (Emerald, 2017), and another one on self-management and leadership in the 2020’s (Otava, 2020). Dr. Itani is a former professional athlete in Decathlon and the captain of the national Finnish athletics team.

Currently Dr. Itani works as Professor of Practice at Aalto University School of Business. Prior to this role, he worked five years in executive roles at The Adecco Group, world’s leading HR service provider, most recently as the CEO of Adecco’s operations in Finland. Dr. Itani holds board positions in diversely formed and organized institutions, such as Ltd. (Oy.), NGO (Ry.) and mutual insurance (keskinäinen). Dr. Itani was recently elected for a second three-year term as President of Suomen Urheiluliitto (SUL), an NGO with close to 100 000 members in Finland.

Dr. Itani attained D.Sc. degree from Aalto University, completing part of his doctoral studies as a visiting scholar at Stanford University. At The Adecco Group he participated several executive development programs organized jointly with IMD and INSEAD.