Maria Sipilä

Maria Sipilä M.Sc. (Econ.), is a Paul Harris Fellow and the President of Kanta-Espoo Rotaryclub. She is a strategic business executive with broad experience in international companies including Ericsson, Nokia and growth companies. Maria acts as a Senior Advisor and Coach at Aalto Startup Sauna and is serving as an advisory board member in growth companies. She is founder and initiator of London based accelerator. Maria is a member of Board Professionals. She has written two books, a book called Heart of Growth which covers attitude and culture as ingredients for business growth and Messages from Africa.

Peter Vesterbacka, Mighty Eagle, Rovio Entertainment Ltd.

Peter Vesterbacka is the Mighty Eagle, Special Projects and the grandest brand ambassador of Rovio Entertainment, the creator of the wildly successful Angry Birds franchise and over 50 other games. Prior to Rovio, Peter worked for HP in several communications-industry related roles. While at HP, Peter founded the HP Mobile E-Services Bazaar, a global innovation and corporate partnership program that Booz Allen Hamilton declared an industry benchmark.  Peter is also Co-founder and the original initiator of MobileMonday as well as the founder of Some Bazaar, a new approach to building and growing new businesses. In 2011 Time Magazine recognized Peter as one of the most influential people in the World in their TIME 100 Listing.

Reidar Wasenius, Personal Brainer, BRIIM Center

Reidar Wasenius is the Personal Brainer and Aivobics Instructor at BRIIM Center (briim.com) - the world's first Brain Fitness Center in Espoo.  He is a popular speaker at conferences and company events and he is frequently featured in the media as an expert on communications and personal development. Recently, he was invited to speak at the annual Neurogaming Conference in San Francisco as the only one from Finland.

Reidar's past employers include Samsung, Nokia, TeliaSonera, Digital Equipment Corporation and TEKES. His employers in the media industry include YLE - the Finnish National Broadcasting Company, a number of commercial radio stations and the Arcada university of applied sciences. Reidar studied Computer Technology at the Helsinki University of Technology (now: Aalto University) majoring in Interactive Digital Media and minoring in Mass Media and Journalism, which he studied at the University of Helsinki.

Anne Berner,  Chairman of the Board of directors, Vallila Interior, Chair Children's Hospital for Finland foundation

Anne Berner is a third generation Family business owner of the company Vallila Interior. She became CEO of the company in 1989. Anne was Chairman of the Board of the Finnish Family Business Association 2009-2011 and is currently on the Board of the European advocacy organization for European Family Businesses in Brussels. She is also serving as a board member on a mutual pension fund and three companies in Finland and Sweden. Anne has participated on the Dragons Den show in Finland and Sweden and thus invested in several start-up companies and is a member of the Board of the Finnish Business Angels Association. Currently Anne is chairing the Foundation responsible for the Fundraising and constructing of the new Hospital for Children. The New Children’s Hospital will be donated to the University Hospital in Helsinki in 2017 when Finland is celebrating 100 years of independence.

Riitta Lumme-Tuomala, Director Aalto University Executive Education

Riitta's qualifications are in the areas of leadership. Especially from the point of different generations at the same workplace, young potential development, social media issues and individual diversity. Riitta has several years of experience in facilitation and lecturing, and has gone through various training courses for trainers. This includes both general trainor and facilitation skills and specific module trainer skills. From 2009 to 2012 Riitta worked as entrepreneur co-operating with several clients with strong connections to Aalto EE. Currently she is working with high potential and talent management concepts.

Panu Luukka, CEO Naqu Oy

Panu Luukka is a founder of Naqu Oy the first Finnish consulting company which is specialized in designing corporate cultures. Panu’s professional history has strong HR flavor, both from practical and theoretical perspective. Panu has worked in HR managerial positions in few IT companies and after leaving from Satama Interactive in 2008 Panu joined Great Place to Work Institute. At GPTW Panu worked with the best workplaces in Finland and in Europe and became an evangelist for a better workplaces.

Anne Stenros, Design Director, KONE Corp.

Anne Stenros has the doctorate in technology in the field of architectural theory from Helsinki University of Technology. She acted as a Managing Director of Design Forum Finland from 1995 to 2004. In 2005 she was Executive Director of Hong Kong Design Centre. Currently she is Design Director at KONE Corporation, a world leading elevator and escalator company. Currently she is a member of the Horizon 2020 Advisory Group for Societal Challenge 6 (EU), the Research, Innovation and Science Policy Expert (RISE) High Level Group (HLG) of EU and the Tampere University of Technology (Finland). She has been appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (FRSA, London) and she holds an adjunct professorship in Design Leadership at the Aalto University, School of Arts, Architecture and Design, Finland.

Jukka Kujala, Chief People Officer, SLUSH

26 year old Chief People Officer is leading an organization of 1000 volunteers at the annual startup conference Slush. In 2013 he held the same position and successfully coordinated the volunteer organization of 600. He's a student at Aalto University majoring in work psychology and leadership with a focus on combining design thinking and effectual entrepreneurship. He has gained expertise of volunteer leadership from heading several student organizations and coaching sports. From 2011 to 2013 he gained experience in co-founding and running a software company. 

 Marjo Miettinen, Chairman of the Board of Teleste Oyj

 Member of the Board and owner of EM Group Oy/Ensto Oy

Marjo Miettinen is one of the owners and a member of the Board of Directors of the family business EM Group and its group company Ensto Oy.

She is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Teleste Oyj and a member of the Board of Efore Oyj.

Further, she is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, a member of the Board of the Finnish Foundation for Technology Promotion and a member of the Management group of the Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation (SHOK) established in Finland.

Will Cardwell, Senior Lecturer and Advisor, Aalto university

Will has been working either as an investor, entrepreneur or CEO in Finnish startup’s since 1996. He's been lucky enough to work in one way or another with a number of great Finnish entrepreneurs like Jari Ovaskainen at iobox, Risto Siilasmaa of F-Secure, and Pekka Sivonen of Digia, among others. Also with plenty of cases that did not fly.  He's good at helping with customer and investor development, and in general implementing lean methodologies. 

Ritva-Liisa Luomaranta, Counsel, Borenius and President, Espoo Meri Rotaryclub

Ritva-Liisa has many years of experience in dispute resolution. Ritva-Liisa has represented our clients in legal proceedings regarding contractual relations, compensation for damages, responsibility issues and labour law.   Ritva-Liisa also has a strong focus in private client representation and she holds significant positions of trust in different associations.   Ritva-Liisa is a country representative in the International Bar Association’s Negligence and Damages committee for the Legal Practice Division.   She has also taken part in legislative work in Finland.   Ritva-Liisa also has actively contributed to pro bono work.   After serving as a Partner from 1982, Ritva-Liisa serves currently as an of Counsel at Attorneys at law Borenius and President, Espoo Meri Rotaryclub.