Valmet Appoints ABB's Max Luedtke to Lead Pulp, Energy and Circularity - What the Hire Signals
Valmet has named ABB veteran Max Luedtke as EVP of its Pulp, Energy and Circularity business area, effective September 1. Here's what the profile and the timing tell planners and operators.
Elena Marsh (AI)Grid & Transmission Editor
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Valmet has appointed Max Luedtke as Executive Vice President of its Pulp, Energy and Circularity business area, effective September 1, 2026[1]. He joins the Executive Leadership Team immediately, based in Tikkurila, Vantaa, Finland.
The appointment is not routine housekeeping. It lands inside a company that is simultaneously running a strategic review of whether to split itself in two - and the profile Valmet chose for the role says something specific about where it wants the Biomaterial segment to go.
Who Luedtke Is
In total, Luedtke brings more than 20 years of international leadership experience in process industries, with expertise spanning automation, electrification, digitalization, and business transformation. His academic background is equally pointed: a degree in electrical engineering from Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden, and an Executive MBA in general management from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
That combination - electrical engineering at the base, global mining and minerals operations in the middle, general management at the top - is not the profile of a pulp-and-paper specialist. It is the profile of someone who has run capital-intensive, geographically dispersed industrial businesses and pushed electrification and automation into them.
Luedtke's predecessor, Sami Riekkola, came from inside Valmet's own automation and biomaterial businesses. The decision to go external — and to ABB specifically — is the first signal worth reading carefully.
Why the Predecessor's Exit Matters
The vacancy opened on July 22, 2026, when Valmet announced that Sami Riekkola had decided to leave the company to pursue an external opportunity. Riekkola had been a member of Valmet's Executive Leadership Team since 2018 and had led the Pulp, Energy and Circularity business area since July 2025 - a tenure of just over a year in the top role. Before that he ran Valmet's Pulp and Energy business line and served as President of the Automation Systems business line between 2018 and 2022.
Riekkola's departure was described as voluntary. Valmet said it would begin the search for a successor immediately. The fact that the company landed Luedtke within roughly four weeks - and announced the appointment on August 19, 2026 - suggests the search was focused and the brief was clear. Riekkola will support the transition until the end of October 2026.
What the Business Area Actually Does
The Pulp, Energy and Circularity business area is the industrial heart of Valmet's Biomaterial Solutions and Services segment. It designs, installs, and services complete pulp mills and process equipment for chemical and mechanical pulp production, as well as biomass- and waste-fueled power plants, boiler islands, and related environmental systems. Its customers are primarily pulp producers and power and heat producers. The most important geographic markets are Europe, South America, and Asia.
On the energy side specifically, the portfolio covers boilers, gasifiers, environmental protection systems, technology rebuilds, and fuel conversion projects. Emission control systems are also part of the offering. These are not small-ticket items: a complete recovery boiler or a biomass power plant island is a multi-year, multi-hundred-million-euro capital project. The lifecycle services that follow - spare parts, performance upgrades, technical support - are where the recurring margin lives.
In 2025, Valmet's total net sales were approximately EUR 5.2 billion, with the Biomaterial Solutions and Services segment - which includes Pulp, Energy and Circularity alongside Packaging and Paper and Tissue - generating EUR 3.8 billion in net sales over the twelve months ending Q2 2026, at a comparable EBITA margin of 9.7%.
The Strategic Review in the Background
The timing of Luedtke's appointment cannot be read in isolation from what Valmet's board announced two days after Riekkola's departure was made public. On July 24, 2026, Valmet initiated a strategic review to evaluate whether to separate its two core businesses - Biomaterial Solutions and Services, and Process Performance Solutions - into two standalone publicly listed companies on Nasdaq Helsinki.
The board was explicit that no decision had been made and that the review carries no guarantee of a transaction. The update is expected no later than the full-year 2026 results announcement. But the logic behind the review is legible: the two segments have grown into largely independent operations with distinct growth profiles, customer bases, and capital requirements.
Process Performance Solutions - the automation and flow control segment - now generates approximately EUR 1.7 billion in annual net sales after the Severn acquisition completed on July 1, 2026, with roughly 70% of order intake coming from industries outside pulp and paper and a comparable EBITA margin of 20.3%. Biomaterial Solutions and Services, at EUR 3.8 billion in net sales, runs at a 9.7% margin and is more exposed to the capital investment cycles of pulp producers and power utilities.
If a separation does proceed, the Pulp, Energy and Circularity business area would be a core asset of the standalone Biomaterial entity. The person running it would, in effect, be running a significant fraction of a newly independent listed company. That context makes the choice of Luedtke - an external hire with a track record in business transformation and electrification - more legible.
What the Profile Signals for the Energy Side
Luedtke's ABB background is specifically in process electrification and automation for heavy industry. Mining and mineral processing share structural characteristics with pulp and biomass energy: continuous-process plants, high energy intensity, long asset lives, and increasing pressure to decarbonize and digitalize operations.
CEO Thomas Hinnerskov's statement on the appointment pointed directly at those competencies: "His experience in leading global organizations and helping customers improve productivity and sustainability will be highly valuable as we continue to develop our Pulp, Energy and Circularity business."
For grid operators and power planners who interact with Valmet on the energy side - biomass boilers, waste-to-energy systems, gasification - the practical read is that the incoming EVP is likely to push harder on the digitalization and electrification of plant operations, and on lifecycle service contracts that extend the revenue relationship beyond the initial capital project. That is the ABB playbook for heavy industry, and it has been Valmet's stated direction under its technology vision 2030.
The Transition
Luedtke starts September 1. Riekkola remains available through October to support the handover. The business area he inherits is operating in a market where orders in Q1 2026 declined - partly because the comparison quarter included a large Pulp, Energy and Circularity order - but net sales grew 10% organically in the same period, supported by large project revenue. The order intake softness in biomaterial services is a near-term headwind that the new EVP will need to address quickly.
The broader structural question - whether Valmet separates its two segments - will be answered by year-end. Luedtke's mandate, whatever the corporate outcome, is to run a EUR 3.8 billion business through a period of both operational and strategic uncertainty. His ABB career suggests he has done harder things in more difficult geographies. The question is whether the specific demands of pulp and biomass energy - where customer relationships are measured in decades and technology cycles in years - translate as cleanly from mining as the headline profile implies.
That answer will take longer than September 1 to emerge.
