They all knew Finland wasn¡¯t really under attack but the room was tense as Sara Mella scanned the Finnish Finance Ministry¡¯s fictitious budget to determine how much money could be redirected toward weapons, military equipment and contingency measures. Border positions needed bolstering, and the public was growing restive as rumors of an invasion spread. Just when her team thought it had a solution, the crisis deepened.
Today, Mella is one of Nordea Bank¡¯s most senior executives, overseeing a €4.5 billion personal banking business across the Nordic region. In 2011, at the time of the war-game, she was Nordea¡¯s deputy head of Finnish retail banking.
¡°It was decision-making under pressure, with limited information and a huge responsibility to make the right choices,¡± she said. ¡°At that stage of my career, I wasn¡¯t carrying responsibility on that scale.¡±?
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