NOTE: John Simon passed away after a sudden illness on July 17, 2025. This interview was conducted with him just ten days before. We publish the interview posthumously to pay homage to John's life and achievements.
Usually, when people retire after a long career, they will clean up their desk, have a farewell ceremony with colleagues, hand in the keys – and then leave the office for good.
For John Simon, that was not the case. While he retired officially in 2009 after more than 25 years of service, he stayed very much involved with KONE. He kept a small office at the Munkkiniemi manor, the company’s official headquarters, and came there every weekday to work – up to his death at the age of 81 in July 2025.
It is obvious that for John, KONE was more than just an employer – and likewise, for the company, John was not just an average employee.
From youth work to corporate communications
Born in Virginia and raised in New York, John might have led a totally different life had it not been for the fact that as a student, he befriended a Finnish guy. When John visited his friend in Helsinki, he met a young Finnish woman, Hannele. The couple were married in 1970 and remained together ever since.
The family left New York for Finland in the early 1980s – first for a sabbatical year, but the move turned out to be permanent.
“We had been living in midtown Manhattan. I just found the quality of life in Finland so much better compared to New York, especially for the children.”
In New York, John had been a youth worker, but moving to Finland necessitated a change of career, since John didn’t speak Finnish at the time. (Later on, he mastered the language to an excellent level.)
Luckily for John, many Finnish people also weren’t that fluent in English.
“There were Finnish companies that were desperate to find help in producing English materials and train their management in spoken English. KONE was one of those companies.”
And so, John found himself a role – first correcting the language for the company’s marketing materials and the in-house magazine, then writing them himself.
“I began working for the small corporate communications team, and was given quite a lot of freedom.”
Listening to the needs of people
At the time, KONE was growing quickly by acquisitions, and John started visiting the newly purchased parts of the company. Many of them had been independent companies for a long time, and people didn’t know much about the company that now owned them.
“I became a two-way communicator: I was helping people in various subsidiaries to understand what KONE was like, but I was also helping senior management to understand how they were seen in the subsidiaries.”
“I started asking myself: What were the things that made KONE a good owner? What were the values that needed to be understood throughout the organization? What was our culture’?”
Looking for answers to those questions, John realized he couldn’t go around telling people how to do things. Rather, he went around listening to people: What were their unmet needs? What were their strengths? How could the management answer those needs while also taking advantage of their strengths?
Communities can’t be built from top down
Over time, John took on new responsibilities besides the regular communications work. With his background as a youth worker, he was a natural talent as the long-time leader of the KONE Global Youth Camp. He also wrote KONE’s Prince, the biography of legendary CEO Pekka Herlin, and father of Antti Herlin, the current Chairman of the Board.
After retirement, John was closely involved with the KONE Centennial Foundation (KCF), which was established in 2010, and sat on its board of directors. He also worked on establishing KONE’s digital archives. And with his extensive knowledge of the company’s history, he gave presentations at the annual long service award ceremonies.
“My main interest in life has been community building, outside of work or inside of it. I’ve been trying to find ways to support a kind of grassroots-level democracy where people are actually involved in what they’re doing.”
In his free time, John devoted a lot of time to coaching young basketball players and organizing community activities in the city of Vantaa, where he lived. The city rewarded John for his community work: In 2016, he was given the annual “cultural blacksmith” recognition, and in 2024, the Vantaa medal.
“To build a community, you must start locally and build from there. You can’t build from top down.”
A family company of over 60,000 people
According to John, in his youth, he was a leftist radical and not a very “business-friendly” person. But as a youth worker he also realized the importance of employment for young adults to find themselves a place in society. Working at KONE made John see that indeed, there was such a thing as a responsible corporation.
“The owners – the Herlin family – were not just interested in maximizing profit at the expense of everything else. Although KONE is a publicly traded company with more than 60,000 employees all over the world, it’s still in many senses a family enterprise. And the Herlins are a family with very strong values: tradition, responsibility, and a sense that they’re doing more than just making money.”
John pointed out that KONE is not a perfect company, but added that “Even when mistakes are made, they are made honestly.”
“I’ve never had a time where I would have doubted the integrity of the company. I would have left in a minute if I had.”