General Lauri Johannes Sutela (11 October 1918, Äänekoski – 8 November 2011; surname until 1929 Schroderus) was a Finnish military officer.

[1] He served as an officer in the engineer corps during World War II.

[2] Sutela worked his way up the Finnish Army and finally became the Chief of Defence from 15 April 1974 until 11 October 1983.

He was considered to be acceptable and a consensus candidate to both Sweden, Soviet Union, West Germany and East Germany, i.e. the main foreign players with influence in the Finnish defence establishment.

This biographical article related to the Finnish military is a stub.