KONE Oyj (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkone]; officially typeset as KONE), founded in 1910 and headquartered in Espoo near Helsinki, Finland, is an international engineering and service company employing some 55,000 personnel across 60 countries worldwide. The firm is the 4th largest manufacturer of elevators and escalators worldwide, and also provides maintenance services and modernization. In addition, KONE builds and services autowalks, automatic doors and gates. The company provides local service for builders, developers, building owners, designers and architects in 1,000 offices in over 50 countries.Since 1924, KONE has been owned by one of Finland's wealthiest families, the Herlin family. After Harald Herlin purchased the company in 1924, he served as its Chairman until 1941. Afterwards, his son, Heikki H. Herlin, took over his father's post from 1941–1987. Control of the company was then handed down to his son, Pekka Herlin, which he retained from 1987–2003. The current Chairman of KONE's Board of Directors from 2003 onwards is Antti Herlin, the son of Pekka Herlin.
In the Finnish language Kone means "machine" or "device".