Guest Speaker Interviews

DREAM+PLAN Kick Off Meeting - Day 1 Tuesday 14th October: ALL - Plenary Room, 11:00am - 12:30pm

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Blurb:

Guest Speakers: cutting-edge research around Resilience, Restoration, Regeneration, Policymakers, and Industry Innovation Drivers. Including:

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Guest Speakers:

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Ms. Helena Sarén  

Ms. Sarén is the Head of Zero Carbon Future mission at Business Finland. Mission’s target is to in-crease Finland’s global carbon handprint aka positive climate impact. Focus is on energy transition enabling industrial renewal, transport and mobility transition and carbon neutral cities.

 

She has also been Chair/Board member at the Nordic Energy Research and chair/member of the Working Group for Climate and Responsibility at Finland’s Service Sector Employers Association. Prior present position she was heading the national Smart Energy Finland program which included various fields of energy, namely energy generation, smart grids, batteries, district energy as well as P2X and hydrogen economy.

 

She has over 25 years of strong and comprehensive experience in the international business – starting from the business development at Wärtsilä about 25 years ago with the continuation of extensive consulting career in the fields of internationalization, development financing and investments. She holds MSc in Engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology. She has also carried out studies at the Helsinki School of Business.

 

She is known thought leader in the field of global energy transition. She drives the change actively via key-note presentations, articles, podcasts.

 

Business Finland is governmentally funded organization and it offers Finnish companies a unified customer journey for innovation activities, internationalization, investments, and talent & tourism promotion.

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Krista Virtanen  

Format: Fireside Chat

Topic: Fashion from the Finnish forest: Insights from the regenerative design of Kuura clothing collection” . 

Krista Virtanen is the Founder & CEO of Krista Virtanen Design. Krista is a fashion and textile designer graduating this year with a master’s degree from Aalto University, specializing in experimental biomaterials and regenerative design. She runs her own brand Krista Virtanen Design and has collaborated with partners such as Metsä Group (FI), Brightplus Oy (FI), Natural Indigo Finland (FI), Forager (USA), and LSJH (FI).

 

She also works as an assistant teacher at ChemArts, Aalto University. Her work explores future biomaterials in fashion, circular processes, and craft-based methods. Virtanen’s works have been exhibited in Finland, UK, the Netherlands, Italy and Japan. (Photo by Harri Tarvanainen)