SIG announced that, following an extensive global search, its Board of Directors has appointed Mikko Keto as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. He is expected to join in the first half of 2026.
Mikko Keto, a Finnish citizen, joins SIG from FLSmidth, a multinational engineering company providing equipment, systems and services to the global mining industry.
Mr. Keto joined FLSmidth in 2021 as President of the Mining division prior to becoming Group CEO in 2022. As CEO, he executed a comprehensive business transformation, including a financial and operational reset, portfolio optimization involving both a major divestment and merger, as well as a global efficiency and cost-reduction program. Mr Keto doubled the value of FLSmidth during his tenure.
Prior to joining FLSmidth, Mr. Keto spent over nine years at Metso Corporation, latterly serving as President, Services and Pumps.
During his career, Mr. Keto has delivered business transformation across several companies including Nokia Networks, KONE Corporation, Metso Corporation, and FLSmidth. Since 2019, Mr. Keto has also served as a board director and member of the Audit Committee for the Normet Group.
Mr. Keto has a degree in M.Sc. (Economics) from the Helsinki School of Economics. He will be based at SIG’s headquarters in Switzerland.
Contrary to concerns – oft repeated on social media – that the manufacturing process destroys the nutritional value of shop bought 100 % orange juice, researchers from leading universities in Spain and Italy have found levels of polyphenols – valuable bioactive compounds linked to health – are similar in home-squeezed and shop-bought juice.
The study, published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition*, compared the most popular shop bought orange juices in the UK, Germany, France and Spain against freshly squeezed ‘Navelina’ oranges. It found that while home squeezed juice contains more vitamin C than shop-bought equivalents, this degrades significantly over time and is expected to reach shop bought juice levels after a week.
The study also established that shop bought orange juice contains 94 % of European recommendations for daily vitamin C intakes – set at 90 mg for men and 80 mg for women – meaning only a minor impact on consumers from a nutritional standpoint.
Vitamin C, found in fruits and vegetables, is essential for human health since it can’t be synthesised by the body and is involved in many biochemical functions including immunity, neutralising free radicals, iron absorption, bone formation and synthesis of collagen. Low intakes can be noticed as poor wound healing and gum inflammation.
Lead scientist in the study, Dr Cristina Viguera from the Department of Food Science and Technology at CEBAS-CSIC, said: “Our research indicates that there’s limited nutritional advantage to spending time home squeezing oranges when you can obtain similar levels of polyphenols and most of the vitamin C you need from a good quality shop bought version.
“We also found that shop bought orange juices preserve their bioactive compounds during storage and the brand, country or manufacturing process made little difference to the polyphenols or vitamin C. Overall, orange juice is still a rich source of vitamin C whether it’s freshly squeezed or purchased”.
*Salar et al. (2024) Comparison of vitamin C and flavanones between freshly squeezed orange juices and commercial 100 % orange juices from four European countries. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38230429/.
