Pekka Tarkka is a Director & Team Leader for Mercuri Urval Japan. With 13+ years of experience in Japan and a deep understanding of the culture, history and language, Pekka leads the newly launched MU business expansion in Japan and focuses on Executive Search and Leadership Advisory work with both APAC and Global clients.
As part of the Mercuri Urval APAC Leadership Team, he enhances the business development capability globally and in the region, and comes with best-in-class client delivery. Additionally, Pekka is an active member of the Global Leadership Team in the following Practices:
Since 2008, Pekka has worked with Senior Leadership members of client organisations, including the time when he belonged to the Mercuri Urval Helsinki office in 2017-2018. He has completed roles for CEO, Country Manager, CFO and Finance Director, Commercial and Marketing leaders in Japan and Finland, and worked on multiple global and APAC region Executive Search, Succession Planning and Market Mapping & Leader Benchmarking projects.
Having worked both in Europe and Japan, Pekka throughout his career has built an extensive network of global and regional leaders in Consumer (Fashion, Luxury, Food & Beverages and Consumer Electronics), Lifesciences (Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Consumer Health and Vision Care), Technology (SaaS and AI) and Industry (Telco, Automotive and Automation) industries. Previously, he held the Head of Sales position at a SaaS Procurement Data Analytics company in which he had the commercial responsibility for Central European region.
Pekka holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Japanology at Stockholm University, Sweden. Pekka has also studied Psychology at Helsinki and Turku Open University, Finland, and Mandarin Chinese in Xiamen University, China.