Mark Kyander joins Columbia Road

Hi Mark, How did you get good at what you do?

I have over a decade of experience in different managerial and commercial roles. During those years I've been fortunate to be able to work with companies that believed in me and always challenged me to go outside of my comfort zone. Therefore, I have had the pleasure of being part of many exciting things, such as leading an internationalisation initiative, building a sales and delivery team from scratch whilst exceeding the teams’ set targets, seeing a large M&A from the inside and creating growth strategies for multiple companies.

My career success is based on three primary building blocks. Firstly, I am humble and always willing to listen and learn, especially from those who have more experience than me. Secondly, I am highly adaptive: I am often the first one to scope out potential cooperation, and then use my innovative skills to add value to my client’s business in any way I can. Lastly, I can build effective and sustainable relationships and understand the importance of the human aspect when doing business.

Where have you earned your spurs?

I have always been drawn to companies that are new, emerging and have an entrepreneurial mindset. I feel that my skills and attitude are more valuable for these kinds of companies. I also enjoy a culture that makes rapid decisions and where everything is not set in stone.

During my career so far I have arranged and led over 5000 meetings with leaders from all possible business fields while working in companies from staffing & recruitment, SaaS, design, and consulting sectors. Together with my clients, we have discussed all kinds of business challenges and devised creative ways to solve them. The solutions for my customers have ranged from large internal transformation programs to building innovative new solutions to tackle problem areas in people's lives and breaking down over a hundred year old siloed product portfolio to provide better experiences for clients.

Why Columbia Road?

Columbia Road’s approach to digital sales and marketing is spot on. It combines all relevant disciplines to truly help our customers to evolve into digital first companies with growth as their primary KPI. This is also evident when investigating the impact we have had in our client co-operations.

On a more personal level, Columbia Road provided me with a unique opportunity. Immediately prior to the decision to move over to Columbia Road I became the father of my second child. Therefore, I was looking for something that I could commit to for an extended time scale. Columbia Road has a very clear plan on what the upcoming 5-7 years will look like, what we need to achieve and how we will get there. In addition to this, the people and culture felt so genuine that it was impossible not to accept the offer.

As mentioned previously, I also feel that I have a lot to give to Columbia Road and see this as an opportunity to utilise all my skills and experience to drive the company forward. I am very much looking forward to the future!

Sampo, what will make our clients love Mark?

“Mark is always professional, but also never forgets that the workplace needs to be fun too. He has excellent communication skills and has the ability and experience to lead professional discussions at CxO level, alongside the knowhow to grow our business with our largest clients. Every company should employ a ‘Mark’ to successfully drive business sales, create a successful working culture, and just to be an all round positive person. Going forward, Mark will have a crucial role in our growth and future development plans,” says Sampo Hämäläinen, Managing Partner at Columbia Road.

What makes your heart beat a little faster?

“I love travelling. I have always enjoyed visiting other cultures and learning about different places on our small globe. I want to make sure that my children also grow up with this mindset. Obtaining this perspective while growing up is essential because in their lifetime the impact of globalisation will become increasingly important,” says Mark.

How would you fancy working alongside Mark at Columbia Road? We're constantly looking for new skilful and nice people to join our crew! Take a peek at our open positions 👇