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Ilmari Absetz, Director Ecosystems, Bio and Circular Economy, Business Finland New ecosystem sparring and Business Finland funding I am a strong experienced innovation professional, a big fan of ecosystems and I believe in the dynamics of differences. I have passion and ambitions to impact on Finnish innovation. Currently I am in charge of Bio & Circular Economy Theme area programs and strategy and work with the slogan: “Saving the World with bio and circular solutions is high value business for Finland. I am responsible of strategy, preparation and execution of programs: Food from Finland 2.0 (innovation funding 60 M€/5y) and Bio and Circular Finland (innovation funding 150 M€/4y). Part of my work is developing key ecosystems and coaching program teams and both national and international stakeholder collaboration. |
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Heini Günther, H2020 Programme Manager, EU Reseach and Innovation Programmes EUTI, Business Finland EU financing Advising potential participants, especially SMEs, about European R&I funding and networking possibilities.
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Nina Jacoby, Senior Advisor, Startup and Fast Growth, Bio & Circular Economy and Cleantech, Business Finland Startup sparring in internationalisation services Nina has broad experience in working with international business. She has been working with both import and export in various businesses including cleantech, electricity, security and electronics. Her specialty is European markets but has also experience from other markets. Nina has worked at Finpro /Business Finland for 3 years and helped companies to plan their internationalization steps and to take the 1st steps abroad. She has also been active in Business Finland growth programs in the fields of energy and bio products. |
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Matti Landin, Trade Commissioner, Brazil, Business Finland Bio and Circular business opportunities in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay Brazil is the 8th largest economy in the World and growing apr 2,5 % in 2019. Brazil is one of the leading Bio economy countries and technology markets dedicated to Pulp, Paper, Ethanol, Agricultural products, but also in bio based pet bottles etc. Brazil is home of some of the world’s largest and most profitable pulp and paper companies like Suzano (after Suzano&Fibria merger 2018) and Klabin. Business Finland in Brazil has excellent relations to both companies and continues to introduce them new bio based products and process productivity enhancing solutions from innovative Finnish SMEs and startups. Suzano (ex Fibria) has also invested in Finnish fiber technology company Spinnova. Also Uruguay and Argentina have excellent conditions to produce biomass at competitive cost and host large pulp mills (Uruguay) and one of the largest biodiesel production (Argentina). Circular economy mindset is gaining ground in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina as the material efficiency and environmental concerns raise in society and industry. Finnish solutions have considerable markets to be explored in these countries. Matti Landin, holds engineering and MBA Degrees, has vast hands on experience and large networks in Brazil and Latin America after working 20 years in the continent in R&D of Pulp & Paper industry, sales management of Finnish technology companies and market entry consulting. |
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Tuomas Lehtinen, Senior Advisor, Business Ecosystems, Bio and Circular Economy, Business Finland New ecosystem sparring and BF funding Specific expertees for the following themes: Water management, Nutrient recycling, Organic circular economy, forest based bioeconomy, Clean soil, environmental measurement and monitoring. Innovation funding for networked research (Co-creation and co-innovation) and large companies t&k&i. |
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Aki Luukkainen, Senior Trade Commissioner, Almentor Capital International sales & marketing Aki has over 20 years of international business experience from executive positions in corporations as well as managing growth of startup companies in several business sectors. He has solid track record in B2B sales and marketing with global accounts and partners in five continents with up to tens of millions of annual sales. He has negotiated agreements with strategic customers including customer focused R&D and customer funding. He has also secured tens of millions of funding from VC-investors, strategic investors and public sources. He has also worked on both sides of the M&A table. Building organizations and operations including management team and board dynamics is close to his heart. |
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Mauri Marjaniemi, Advisor SME & Midcap, Bio and Circular economy, Business Finland SME sparring and BF funding I have been working for Business Finland 20 years and handling 500 funding applications. I focus on funding and sparring for SMEs and MidCap (group level turnover less than 300 M€) companies, which are more than five years old and have stabilized their base business, but are willing to develop new growth businesses. My special technology areas, in addition to the bio and circular economy, are energy and environment technologies and digital applications of them. I am interested in all kinds of business models, which can lead companies to the international growth. Possibly with help of BF´s global network. |
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Maarit Vuorio, Advisor SME & Midcap, Bio and Circular economy, Business Finland SME sparring and BF funding, Enterprise Europe Network The Enterprise Europe Network helps businesses innovate and grow on an international scale. It is the world’s largest support network for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions. The Network is active in more than 60 countries worldwide. It brings together 3,000 experts from more than 600 member organisations. |
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Werner Merzeder, Trade Commissioner Europe West, Business Finland Global bio & circular business opportunities Global Opportunity Leader for Bio & Circular Solutions. Helping Finnish companies since 2000 in their business development in Central Europe. |
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Anna Niittylä, Senior Advisor, Latin America, Chile, Business Finland Bio & circular business opportunities in Latin America Bio and Circular business opportunities and market trends in Chile, Peru, Mexico and Columbia. Latin American countries are shifting from a linear to a circular economy model. A circular approach allows the economies of the region to grow while preserving their unique ecological assets. This change in perspective offers many cross-sectoral opportunities for Finnish companies, including but not limited to: Waste-to-Value, Bioenergy & Biogas, Recycling, Mining and Agricultural residues-based business. The Latin American countries as a region represent “enormous economic development potential |
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Pia Qvintus, Technology Manager, program manager for Innovative Bioproducts growth program of Business Finland Export services in bio and circular economy Pia Qvintus is working as technology manager at VTT for commercialization of biobased materials and technologies. She has been heading research organisations dealing with development of new biobased applications of forest biomass since 1994 at VTT; big research topics being nanocellulose development https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yctog3J7shk and design driven applications of cellulose http://cellulosefromfinland.fi/design-driven-value-chains-in-the-world-of-cellulose/ . Since 2016 she has been working first for Finpro and then with Business Finland in Innovative Bioproducts growth program supporting international growth of Finnish startups and SMEs in the field of bioeconomy. |
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Lari Rajantie, Leading Specialist, Sitra Sustainable everyday life and consumer business Sustainable consumption is one of the megatrends that is changing the business landscape around the world. Old competitive advantages are becoming obsolete and the market is open to new challengers that understand consumer behavior and trends, and know how to use new technology to address consumer needs and sustainability challenges. Fiksu arki development programme was developed by Sitra to help new companies develop attractive and successful solutions for sustainable everyday life. It brings together new companies and established businesses to develop smart consumer solutions by service design, rapid prototyping, agile experiments and real customer feedback. |
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Anne Raudaskoski, Co-founder & chairman of the board, Ethica Oy Branding and marketing Anne Raudaskoski is a Co-founder and Principal Consultant of Ethica, an internationally recognised circular economy consultancy. Anne managed the consumer interface project in the Relooping Fashion Initiative, which was highly commended at the prestigious Circulars2016 competition and chosen as one of the most innovative circular projects in Sustainia 100 publication. One of her latest works in Sitra funded Puusta Pidemmälle project is the development of circular narrative – a marketing tool for circular products. In her view, there is a lot of room for developing a compelling circular narrative different from the ‘save-the-world-by-buying-this-product’ marketing messages. Circular brands have a great opportunity to create a long-lasting customer relationship through inviting customers being part of the transparent loop of their operations. In addition, companies should move from selling to engagement by developing new services and novel ways of communication. |
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Jari Seilonen, Senior Advisor, East Asia, Business Finland, Taiwan Bio & circular business opportunities in Asia Jari Seilonen, Senior Advisor in Business Finland Taiwan office has more than 15 years of working experience in East Asia mainly in China, Japan and Taiwan. In this current position in Taipei, he also works closely with Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and leads small export team, which covers Greater South China. In the event, he will present some latest business opportunities and trends related to bio and circular economy themes in Asia |
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Sisko Sipilä, Senior Advisor, Business Ecosystems, Bio and Circular Economy, Business Finland Business Finland ecosystem funding (Plastics and other bio materials) I work as a Chief Adviser for ecosystems in Bio and Circular Economy. I have a long experience in innovation funding for companies and research organizations. Materials and manufacturing industry focusing on innovative products, processes and services are especially in my focus. I am also involved with the activities concerning the plastics roadmap for Finland targeting at reducing, refusing, recycling and replacing. |
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Saana Tikkanen, Service Designer, Palmu Oy Circular service design My work as a service designer is to design value creating services & solutions to both digital and physical world by bringing users voice to the center of the development work. |
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Juuso Puolanne, Investment Director, Tesi
Tesi accelerates companies' growth stories by investing in them, directly or via funds. We are an active minority owner and invest together with private investors on the same terms and with the same expectations for returns. Tesi has launched recently a new 50 m€ investment program focusing on circular economy. The concept of circular economy is broad and includes, for example, renewable materials, extending product life, products as services, resource efficiency, recycling and sharing economy. The aim of the program is to make direct equity investments in approximately ten companies. In addition to Tesi’s financial contribution, investments include at least the same amount of private investors’ money. Juuso has over 15 years of experience of growth financing, transactions, business development and value creation. He’s currently active with six portfolio companies and is also looking for new promising opportunities to invest in. |
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Christopher Palmberg, Program Manager, Business Finland Business with Impact – opportunities in developing markets The Business with Impact (BEAM) –program helps Finnish companies and their partners develop new solutions for needs in developing markets.
We collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finnpartnership and the UN Technology and Innovation Laboratory in Finland to offer networks, training and advice. |
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Risto Huhta-Koivisto, Senior Director, Ecosystems, Bio- & Circular Economy, Business Finland |
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Inkeri Huttu, Senior Advisor, Startup and Fast Growth, Bio & Circular Economy and Cleantech Business Finland |
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