Anne Immonen to continue as Ylva’s CEO

Anne Immonen has been appointed as CEO of Ylva and finance director of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki. Immonen has been working as the CEO on a temporary basis since 1 June 2026.

LLM, MHM Anne Immonen has been working as the director of restaurant business at Ylva since July 2021. Immonen has broad experience of the operative management of restaurant and café activities, the development of chain business operations and HR management. Before Ylva, Immonen worked as the director of operations and HR at Select Service Partner Finland Oy.

Ylva has entered a new era after the property arrangements made in spring 2026. In the future, the company’s focus is more clearly on its restaurant business.

‘In her previous role, Anne has demonstrated her ability to manage successful business operations and turn even challenging situations into triumphs. Under her leadership, UniCafe has taken important steps in pioneering responsible restaurant activities. One example of this is plant-based lunches now accounting for nearly 50 per cent of sales. With Ylva’s focus increasingly on its restaurant business, Anne is the right person to lead the company as a whole and to serve as a link between Ylva and the Student Union’, Chair of HYY’s Board Emil Aarnio asserts.

‘Ylva is seeking future growth from operating and developing responsible restaurant business. Anne’s influence can already be clearly seen here: our restaurant business has been growing profitably under her leadership for several years now. The Board trusts her ability to implement the company’s strategy and successfully manage its business operations in the future, too. Making Anne’s position as CEO permanent was thus a natural conclusion’, Chair of Ylva’s Board Hanna-Mari Manninen sums up.

UniCafe’s pioneering work on student meals and years of resolute responsibility work give Ylva a strong starting point for developing its restaurant business in a profitable and customer-oriented manner while helping build more sustainable food culture.

‘I want to thank the Student Union and Ylva’s Board for their trust. It is inspiring to get to write the next chapters of Ylva’s story together with our skilled and committed personnel. The launch of HYY’s own restaurant activities at Domus in 1953 laid the foundation for student meals in Finland in their current form. We are used to challenging bigger companies and setting the bar high in all our operations. You can expect us to make bold initiatives related to matters such as responsibility and sustainability in the future too’, Immonen states.

Ylva’s Board decided on appointing the CEO in its meeting on 16 September. The Representative Council of the Student Union of the University of Helsinki further decided, on 8 October, to appoint Immonen as HYY’s finance director on the proposal of Ylva’s Board, as has been done with Ylva’s previous CEOs.

Further information:

Hanna-Mari Manninen
Chair of Ylva’s Board
+358 40 717 7494
hanna-mari.manninen@dittmar.fi

Emil Aarnio
Chair of HYY’s Board
+358 50 475 1280
emil.aarnio@hyy.fi

Anne Immonen
CEO, Ylva
+358 40 512 5008
anne.immonen@ylva.fi