Speakers

Juliette Powell is an independent researcher, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker at the intersection of technology and business. Her consulting services focus on global strategy and scenarios related to AI and data, banking, mobile, retail, social gaming, and responsible technology. She has delivered live commentary on Bloomberg, BNN, NBC, CNN, ABC, and BBC and presentations at institutions like The Economist, Harvard, and MIT. She works with such organizations as YPO, Reuters, the United Nations, Warner Brothers, l’Union des Banques Suisses, Microsoft, The Red Cross, Cirque du Soleil, IBM, and the World Bank Group.

Juliette’s previous book is “33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking” (Financial Times Press, 2009). She was a cofounder with Intel Labs of the research network WeTheData. “The AI Dilemma” is based in part on her research conducted at Columbia University. Powell is a faculty member at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and the founding partner of Kleiner Powell International (KPI), kleinerpowell.com.

Dr. Daniel Susskind is a Research Professor in Economics at King’s College London and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University. His work explores the impact of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, on work and society. Breaking the news that automation and AI are transforming both blue- and white-collar jobs, he offers a pragmatic and optimistic outlook on how we can prepare for the transformation — including how to educate and train for the workplaces of the future — and shines a light on the extraordinary prosperity waiting on the other side of disruption.

Daniel is the co-author of the bestselling book, The Future of the Professions, which calls for an update to the antiquated ways in which professionals such as doctors, teachers, and lawyers perform their work in our increasingly digital world where artificial intelligence becomes smarter every day. Originally published in 2015, the book was updated in 2022 to provide insight on the impact of recent technological advancements. His 2020 release, A World Without Work, was described by The New York Times as “required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future,” and was named to many of the most prestigious Best Books of 2020 lists. His new book, Growth: A Reckoning, will be released in spring 2024. His TED Talk debunking three prevailing myths surrounding the future of work has been viewed more than 1.6 million times.

Previously, he worked in various roles in the British Government: as a policy advisor in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, a policy analyst in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and a senior policy adviser in the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.

Retired Lieutenant General Mary A. Legere, former Senior Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Army, is a Managing Director for Accenture Global Defense, focused on bringing Accenture’s global capabilities, services and fed-fit best practices to national defense intelligence and cyber clients.

Prior to joining Accenture Federal Services in 2016, Mary served for 34 years in the U.S. Army and Intelligence Community, with experience leading Intelligence, Security and Cyber organizations, including directing the U.S. Army’s enterprise of 58,000 intelligence professionals, commanding the Army’s 17,000-person global Intelligence Command, and serving as the Senior Military Intelligence Officer in Iraq and the Republic of Korea.

As the Army G2, she led the development and execution of the U.S Army’s multi-billion-dollar Strategic Plan, expanded its full-spectrum Cyber forces, modernized the Army’s Aerial and Ground ISR fleets, and drove the effort to modernize the Army’s global intelligence information architecture, setting conditions for Army migration to Cloud, drive to digital and expansion of the responsible use of Open Source intelligence and artificial Intelligence.

Upon retirement from the Army, she joined Accenture Federal Services, serving as the Senior Advisor and contributing to the expansion and growth of AFS’s Defense and National Portfolios, while also serving as a national security expert in support of Accenture.  In June 2023, she joined Accenture’s Global Defense Practice to assist Accenture’s Global Defense teams with Strategy, Growth and Client Engagement with a focus on accelerating multi-national, multi-domain mission command and C4ISR solutions for defense and national security organizations around the world.

Mary holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and mass Communication from the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Masters’ Degrees from both the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and U.S. Army War College and an honorary doctorate of letters from UNH.

Daron Acemoglu is an Institute Professor at MIT and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, the British Academy of Sciences, the Turkish Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, the European Economic Association, and the Society of Labor Economists. He is also a member of the Group of Thirty.

He is the author of six books, including New York Times bestseller Why Nations Fail: Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (joint with James A. Robinson), Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (with James A. Robinson), and Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (with Simon Johnson).

His academic work covers a wide range of areas, including political economy, economic development, economic growth, technological change, inequality, labor economics and economics of networks.

Daron Acemoglu has received the inaugural T. W. Shultz Prize from the University of Chicago in 2004, and the inaugural Sherwin Rosen Award for outstanding contribution to labor economics in 2004, Distinguished Science Award from the Turkish Sciences Association in 2006, the John von Neumann Award, Rajk College, Budapest in 2007, the Carnegie Fellowship in 2017, the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize in 2018, the Global Economy Prize in 2019, and the CME Mathematical and Statistical Research Institute prize in 2021.

He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in 2012, and the 2016 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award.

He holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Utrecht, the Bosporus University, University of Athens, Bilkent University, the University of Bath, Ecole Normale Superieure, Saclay Paris, and the London Business School.

Mikko Alasaarela is an impact-focused AI entrepreneur, and the founder & CEO of professional community platform Equel. Before, he has founded 7 tech startups in Helsinki, Finland; Berlin, Germany; and San Francisco, CA with 3 exits to date.

Alasaarela’s startups have raised in aggregate over $30M in funding, and employed over 700 people. He has lived and built startups in Helsinki, London, San Francisco and Berlin.

Mikko Alasaarela is a thought leader with a large social media following and world-leading expert in algorithmic influence. He is the author of “The Servant Influencer”, book on using algorithmic influence for positive impact. His writings have been read by tens of millions of people globally.

Alasaarela has authored 6 international patents, won the 2006 Red Dot Design Award and 2018 Global Blockchain Competition in Artificial Intelligence category.

He has spoken at many international conferences, private leadership events, companies and government organizations.

Katja Bäckström has been working in business and customer experience development for more than 10 years. She has led successful digital transformation projects where customer experience development has resulted in tangible benefits, verifyed by business metrics. Currently, she leads Elisa’s business in customer interactions and customer service solutions,  with the goal of using artificial intelligence and automation to provide benefits for enterprises and society.

Timo Harakka, a well-known public figure and a sought-after keynote speaker, has been Member of the Finnish parliament since 2015. He served as the Minister of Transport and Communications in the Marin cabinet (2019-2023), and was deeply involved in data and A.I. legislation both at the national and EU level. In 2022, Finland ranked No. 1 in the European DESI (Digital Economy and Society Index). Currently, Mr. Harakka is the Vice chair of the Committee for the Future, where he is concentrating on A.I. governance, data economy, and communications technology. His positions in the EU Affairs and Foreing Affairs committees provides platforms also for international advocacy.

Prior to his political career, he was an award-winning journalist and broadcaster for more than 30 years, writing columns for all major news outlets in Finland, including Helsingin Sanomat, Suomen Kuvalehti and Talouselämä. He was the host and producer of well-known current affairs programmes at YLE, the national broadcasting company.

Specialising in international politics and economics, Timo Harakka is the author of six books, His latest book on data economy was  published while still in office (2023) to great acclaim. ”Data capitalism in a time of crises” is available also in English, at https://timoharakka.fi/datacapitalism. He is married with three children and lives in Helsinki. He is a small-scale angel investor in start-ups and literary projects and is also a micro-owner of Helsinki Seagulls, the national champion basketball club.

Atte Harjanne is a 38 year old member of parliament and member of Helsinki city council. Currently he serves as one of the vice chairs of the Green party in Finland and lead the Green parliamentary group in the parliament of Finland. Previously he worked as a researcher studying economic and social impacts of climate change.

In politics Atte Harjanne has two overarching goals. First, he wants to bring more scientific and expert knowledge to politics and decision-making. In the face of the social, economic and environmental challenges of today we need to base our policies on knowledge, not images. While policy-making is and should be based on values, it needs solid science and research to build on.

Second, he wants to build bridges and create shared understanding across different perspectives. Too much of current politics is about playing zero-sum games and collecting points instead of actually making the world a better place.

With over 25 years of experience of leading change and innovation in media, education and policy, Atte is currently the President of Sitra.

Prior to this he was the Director General of Higher Education and Research policy at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland (2020-23). Atte worked for 20 years as Senior Editor and CEO of three major Finnish news organizations (Yle, STT and Helsingin Sanomat).

Atte has a degree in European Law from the University of Helsinki. He was Professor of Practice at LUT University (2018-20), a fellow at Oxford University’s Reuters Institute (2017-18) and a Senior Fellow at the LSE (2018-20).

Atte has been a guest speaker at numerous international conferences, with topics ranging from change management and digitalization to AI and polarisation of society.

Joni Kämäräinen is a Professor of Signal Processing at Computing Sciences department at Tampere University  where he is part of the Vision Group. Kämäräinen did his post-doc in Center of Vision, Speech and Signal Processing, University of Surrey, with Josef Kittler. After his post-doc he spent five years in the Faculty of the LUT School of Engineering Science, LUT University, after which he was selected to the current tenure-track position in 2012 (tenured 2017 and promoted to full professor 2020). Since 2020 he is also Academic Leader of the Huawei’s Camera Team in Tampere.

His main research interests are computer vision, image processing and machine learning. Kämäräinen is broadly interested about computer vision problems and recently his attention has moved toward robot vision and machine learning for robotics. He is involved in many applied research projects where he collaborate with the local industry.

You can find more information from the Vision Group Web page at research.tuni.fi/vision.

Dr. Tero Ojanperä is a visionary technologist and pioneering entrepreneur. As the Chairman and Co-Founder of Silo AI, the largest private AI lab in the Nordics, he is a driving force behind the AI revolution, shaping the future of technology and business. In addition to his groundbreaking work at Silo AI, Tero holds the position of Professor of Practice in Intelligent Platforms at Aalto University, Finland. Previously, he was Nokia’s CTO and Chief Strategy Officer and served on its executive board.

He also holds positions on the boards of various public and private companies.  His ability to drive innovation, foster collaboration, and navigate complex business landscapes has made him an invaluable asset to these organizations.

His latest book “AI Revolution – The Handbook” is a practical guide to the use of ChatGPT and other new AI tools, as well as an in-depth look at the underlying technology of large language models, their diverse applications, and societal impacts. He is also a co-author of the influential book “Platform Strategy: Transform Your Business with AI, Platforms and Human Intelligence” which provides a blueprint for businesses navigating the digital age.

His accomplishments have been recognized globally, with a nomination as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2006 and a ranking as the 7th Most Creative Person in Business in 2009 by Fast Company.

Pentti Peisa is a Director of Data and Technology at Wärtsilä Corporation, with 25 years of experience in ICT technology for major Finnish industrial corporations. In his current role, he focuses on learning and exploiting the possibilities of new digital technology. The organization led by Pentti is at the forefront of data/AI adaptation in Wärtsilä, creating solutions that measurably increase business productivity.

Sirpa Pietikäinen, a Finnish Member of the European Parliament, representing the European People’s Party (EPP) since 2008. Former Minister of Environment and a Member of the Finnish Parliament. Among her many duties, she is working in the Environment and Public Health Committee (ENVI) and she has been actively involved as a member in ENVI committee preparations of European Health Date Space.

Petri Rouvinen is currently a Research Advisor at ETLA Economic Research. His career has spanned various roles, including Professor of Practice in Sustainable Economy at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Senior Economist at Avance Attorneys, and Research Director at ETLA, where he also led its subsidiary, Etlatieto, as CEO.

Rouvinen, with over twenty years of experience in enterprise and innovation policy, has been actively involved with numerous international organizations such as Nordic Innovation, IMD, the OECD, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank.

He earned his Doctorate in Economics from Vanderbilt University in the USA in 2000. Currently, he is leading a national research project examining the labor market and business impacts of generative AI. His latest academic work on AI was published in the November 2023 issue of “Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice”, the leading scholarly journal in its field.

Simo Säynevirta has over 30 year’s track record of innovation in energy sector, manufacturing, process industry and industrial digitalization. Currently Säynevirta heads ABB’s Green Electrification ecosystem program and serves as the chairman of the Hydrogen Cluster Finland. In 2022, Säynevirta was elected as the “CTO of the Year” in Finland.

Sasu Tarkoma is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki and Dean of the Faculty of Science. He was Director of the Helsinki Center for Data Science. He is affiliated with the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT, the Finnish Center for AI (FCAI), and the 6G Flagship. He is chairman of the Finnish Scientific Advisory Board for Defence (MATINE).

Tarkoma has published over 300 scientific articles. He has authored or co-authored four international scientific books published by Wiley, CRC Press, and Cambridge University Press. He has 11 granted US patents and over 20 international patent applications. His research has received a number of Best Paper awards and mentions, for example at ACM SenSys, IEEE PerCom, ACM CCR, and ACM OSR.

Dr Riikka Virkkunen is Professor of Practice at VTT, Finland. She is Co-chair of the European manufacturing partnership Made In Europe (MIE) and member of several European boards (EFFRA, MIE, EIT Manufacturing North). In 2023, Virkkunen was appointed to the international advisory group of BRTA (association of 17 research institutes in Basque country) and was nominated as doctor of honorary in Mälardalen University.

In her home country, Virkkunen has been supporting the Ministry of Economics and Employment in the execution of the national Artificial Intelligence 4.0 program. Previously, she coordinated the Finnish Industrial Internet Forum with over 200 company members.

At VTT, she has had various manager positions and led VTT’s strategic initiative on Industrial Renewal. Currently she heads VTT’s research investment program ‘Digital development platform for biosynthetic materials’ capitalizing on AI methods.

Virkkunen holds a PhD in computational materials physics.

Kaisa Väänänen is a Professor of Human-Technology Interaction in Tampere University, Finland. Kaisa has over 25 years of experience of interdisciplinary research both in industry and academia. She is currently focusing on Human-Centered AI and how AI-driven solutions can advance sustainable. She is passionate about understanding how user needs and experiences can be supported by novel technologies. Kaisa is the head of the doctoral programme of Humans and Technologies, and has supervised 23 doctoral students to graduation. In 2013-2018, Kaisa served six years as a member of Academy of Finland’s research council for Natural Sciences and Engineering. She is very active in the international research community, and frequently takes part in organizing conferences in her field. Kaisa has been selected as a Distinguished Member of Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) for her long-standing contribution to the field of computing.

Stefan Gross-Selbeck is part of the global leadership team of BCG X, Boston Consulting Group’s tech build and design unit. He is global leader climate tech at BCG, as well as global leader for green tech for X, focused on leading global efforts in green tech and business building for a net-zero economy.

Stefan has been successfully building, launching, and running digital businesses and platforms for more than 20 years. His client work focuses on transforming traditional industries through the experience he gained as an executive of highly innovative digital companies. Since 2021, Stefan has been leading the launch of Green Ventures, an offering with a dedicated team focused on partnering with corporates to invest in, co-build, and scale sustainable businesses, thereby accelerating climate action through innovation that creates value for both shareholders and society.

Stefan is actively involved in the startup community as an angel investor and advisor. Outside of BCG X, he regularly speaks on business model innovation and market disruption at industry events. He has also been a visiting professor of entrepreneurship at the Alexander von Humboldt-Institute for Internet and Society.

Prior to joining BCG, Stefan was the CEO of XING, Europe’s leading social network for professionals. He previously held leadership roles at eBay, including vice president and managing director of eBay Germany. He was also a managing director at ProSieben Digital Media and a project leader for BCG in Germany.

Matti Apunen (b. 1960) is a Professor of Practice at the Tampere University and a long-time communications consultant and columnist. His background is in the media, which he served for 26 years as a journalist and as the editor of the country’s second-largest daily newspaper, Aamulehti. He ran the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, a pro-market think tank from 2010 to 2019. Mr. Apunen is currently the chairman of Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).

Director of Communications and Public Affairs, The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra

Ms Ravantti oversees Sitra’s internal and external communications, Sitra’s brand, and its relationships with key stakeholders in Finland and abroad. Ms Ravantti has three decades of experience in communications, media, and stakeholder relations. She also has extensive experience in leading digital transformation of media.

Prior to joining Sitra, Ms Ravantti served as Director General of Communications at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with a focus on development of strategic communications. At Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle, Finland’s largest media outlet, her prior positions included member of the Board of Directors of Yle News and Current Affairs, Head of World News, Bureau Chief in Berlin and Brussels, and Head of Public Affairs of Yle.

Mr Kai Sauer took up his position as the Ambassador of the Embassy of Finland to Germany on the 1st of September, 2023.

Prior to this he served four years as the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Security Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland since June 2019.

He served as the Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations, in New York (2014-2019), and as the Ambassador of Finland to Indonesia, Timor-Leste and ASEAN (2010-2014). Mr Sauer has worked for the Finnish Foreign Ministry for nearly 25 years and served also in Croatia, Kosovo, Austria and the US. He has held several senior UN positions.

Mr Sauer was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1967. He graduated from Tampere University in 1995 with a Master’s in International Relations. He has also studied in Hamburg and Berlin.

In 2019, the Finnish President awarded Mr Sauer the Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland. Mr Sauer’s military rank is corporal. He holds a Honorary Doctorate of Northland College, Wisconsin, USA.

Pekka Sivonen has more than 30 years of experience in the software and digitalization industry as an entrepreneur and as a high-level civil servant in the government service.

His impact as an entrepreneur spans over 50 acquisitions, including SysOpen, Sentera, Yomi, Verkonmerkki, and QT Technology. In addition, under his leadership, more than 400 investments were made in early-stage software companies such as Fingersoft and Singa, when he led business accelerators between 2012 and 2016.

Pekka Sivonen is Digia Oyj’s founder, CEO and later full-time Chairman of the Board in 1995-2012. He grew the company’s staff from one to 1,600 employees and received the Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2004, 2005 and 2006 from Ernst & Young.

From 2016, he served as Tekes’ strategy director, responsible for programs related to digitization, IoT, data, artificial intelligence, intelligent traffic, information security and platform economy. When Tekes changed to Business Finland, he was appointed as a member of the management team with responsibility for the digital transformation of Finnish industry.

In 2020, Sivonen took over responsibility for European research and innovation cooperation in Business Finland. He also served as head of the Brussels office and strengthened his networks with the European Commission, the European Parliament and other European institutions.

Since 2023, Pekka Sivonen has been the project manager of the Kvanttinova project, which is a next-generation microelectronics design center and pilot line with a total cost estimate of around 600 million euros. He is responsible for the strategic positioning of the project and for creating and engaging a network of 20 business partners. He continues delivering advisory to companies looking for accelerated growth and international expansion.

In addition, Sivonen has held several demanding positions, such as the World Bank’s digitization expert, the World Economic Forum’s digitization expert, the European Commission’s artificial intelligence advisor (HLGAI), the European Commission’s Global Gateway Masterplan digitization expert, a member of the University of Oulu’s 6G Flagship Strategic Advisory Board, Allied ICT Finland’s strategic advisor, and 3 AMK on the Strategic Advisory Board.