Turku, Finland, March 15th 2021 — Vaadin Ltd. today announced that Joonas Lehtinen, who co-founded and led Vaadin for over 20 years has stepped down as CEO, effective immediately. He will be succeeded by CFO and co-founder Jurka Rahikkala, who will assume the post of interim CEO.

Mr. Lehtinen will continue to serve as an advisor to Mr. Rahikkala and other leaders in the company.

“I would like to thank all Vaadiners, you are an amazing team. We have a very exciting product, roadmap, community, and customer base. That is a solid foundation to build on for the future, and I am excited about what will be coming out next,” said Mr. Lehtinen. 

“On behalf of the entire Board of Directors, we are highly appreciative of Mr. Lehtinen’s vision, dedication, and tireless work that has built Vaadin from the ground up into the global software company and outstanding, international team it is today,” said Juan Carlos Soto, chairman of the board of directors. 

“When we started Vaadin together 20 years ago with Joonas, it was a beginning of an adventure. I am honored to be steering the company through the next steps on that adventure, and assure everyone that we will continue serving our customers and community better than ever through the transition.“, concluded interim CEO, Jurka Rahikkala.

As one of the company’s co-founders, Mr. Rahikkala has an in-depth understanding of Vaadin’s product, ethos and business. Vaadin will continue striving to fight for simplicity, build even better tooling for developers, and help businesses that trust the company’s technologies maximize ROI from their web apps.

Vaadin’s technologies are now used by over 100 million end-users, 150,000+ developers and a significant percentage of Fortune 100 companies. The company has a global presence with offices and employees located in Finland, Germany and the US. Recent investments by the company to expand its footprint in novel markets, such as real-time collaboration and front-end app development have been met with positive reception and strong adoption by the Vaadin community.