Speakers

Get to know the speakers of the 14th Baltic Sea Region Forum below.

Kari Liuhto - Director, Centrum Balticum Foundation Kari Liuhto is the Director of the Centrum Balticum Foundation. He is also the Director and Professor of the Pan-European Institute in the Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku. Liuhto has specialised in the economics of the Baltic Sea Region.

Minna Arve - Mayor, City of Turku Minna Arve has served as the Mayor of Turku since 2017. Turku-born Arve is a Master of Economics and a nurse. During her career, Arve has worked i.e. as the Managing Director of Turku Chamber of Commerce and as the Party Secretary of the Finnish National Coalition Party. She has also led a long career in municipal politics. As the Mayor of Turku, Arve has highlighted major issues such as sustainable growth, urban inclusion, the prevention of social exclusion, and new means of industrial and business policies. She has promoted international networks and co-operation, and serves as Vice President of ICLEI - Local Governments for sustainability.

Markus Granlund - Dean, Turku School of Economics Markus Granlund is a Professor of Management Accounting and the Dean of Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku. He has published widely in respected scientific journals and is an awarded executive educator. Markus has also been involved with a number of development projects concerning accounting and information systems in major companies and public sector organizations in Finland and abroad. He holds several positions of trust in the university sector, in research foundations, and in companies.

Ville Niinistö - Member of the European Parliament Ville Niinistö is a Member of the European Parliament. He is the Greens/EFA groups coordinator in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a member of the Committee on Environment. Niinistö served as Finland's Minister of the Environment from 2011 to 2014. Niinistö is a former member of the Finnish parliament, former party leader of the Green Party of Finland and a current member of the city council of Turku.

Petri Vuorio - Director, Entrepreneurship, Industrial Policy and EU Affairs, Confederation of Finnish Industries EK Mr. Petri Vuorio joined the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK in 2016 and he currently acts as Director of Entrepreneurship, EU Affairs and International Trade.  Prior to joining the EK he has worked 14 years as Corporate Banker at Svenska Handelsbanken, Swedbank and Nordea in Finland, Nordics and Russia. Mr. Vuorio is Member of the Supervisory Board at Finnfund Ltd., Member of the Board at Centrum Balticum and Vice-chair of Entrepreneurship and SME Committee at BusinessEurope.

Kadri Simson - Commissioner for Energy, European Commission Kadri Simson is an Estonian politician from the Centre Party. She is serving as a European Commissioner for Energy in the Von der Leyen Commission since 1 December 2019. She was previously the Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure in Jüri Ratas' first cabinet from 2016 to 2019. During the Estonian Presidency in the Council of the EU, Simson chaired both energy ministers and transport ministers meetings in TTE Council and ministers of economy format in EU Competitiveness Council. From 2007–2016 Kadri Simson was a member of the 11th, 12th, and 13th Riigikogu and in 2019 she was also elected to the 14th Riigikogu. She holds a Master's degree in Political Science from University College London.

Aleksandra Gawlikowska-Fyk - Head of the Power Project, Forum Energii Aleksandra Gawlikowska-Fyk, PhD, is a director of Power Sector Programme at Forum Energii, a Warsaw-based think tank supporting energy transition in Poland. She specialises in internal electricity market, energy security and low-carbon transition. Previously she was leading the International Economic Relations and Energy Policy Programme at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, one of the most recognised analytical teams in Central Europe. Prior to that, she worked for many years on Poland’s and the EU electricity market at the Energy Regulatory Office. She holds PhD in economics, and MA in administration law; she is an author of numerous publications on energy, combining political and economic perspectives.

Veijo Hyvönen - Editorial Editor, Turun Sanomat Veijo Hyvönen is a finnish journalist. He is in charge of the editorials in the newspaper Turun Sanomat, which is the largest newspaper in Southwest Finland. He is also the deputy to the editor in chief. Hyvönen has been working in Turun Sanomat for over 20 years in various positions, such as business journalist, news editor and managing editor. He has a master's degree from the Turku School of Economics.

Peeter Kadarik - Deputy Head of Commissioner Kadri Simson’s Cabinet, European Commission As the Deputy Head of the Energy Cabinet in the European Commission, Peeter Kadarik is a driven and motivated policy maker, focused on solving challenges and finding solutions towards more sustainable Europe. For obvious reasons his work is concentrated on European energy policy, but he also possesses profound knowledge on energy digitalisation, cybersecurity and Europe’s financial markets. Mr. Kadarik has a background of serving as an adviser to the Minister of Economy and Infrastructure. Prior to that, he was more than seven years an economic adviser and a head of the Secretariat of Estonian Centre Party Faction in the Estonian Parliament.

Audrius Masiulionis - Attaché for Commercial Affairs, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania Audrius Masiulionis has a vast experience of promoting trade and investment globally as a former director of the Investment Promotion Department at the Invest Lithuania Agency and over 10 years background as a Commercial Attaché of Lithuania in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Key interests - Nordic Baltic region economic cooperation. Expertise - investment promotion, business development and supply chains.

Timo Tatar - Deputy Secretary General for Energy and Mineral Resources, Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications Timo Tatar has been the Deputy Secretary General for Energy and Mineral Resources of the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications since March 2019. He previously worked as the MoEAC Director of the Energy department from December 2012. Timo Tatar co-ordinates the development, implementation and surveillance of energy sector's development plans within the Ministry’s area of government. The Deputy Secretary General arranges the preparation of energy sector's legislation in Estonia and is responsible for drafting and protecting the Government’s positions in this sphere in both the European Union and international organisations.

Tuomo Uotila, Professor, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology Tuomo Uotila, D.Sc. (Tech.), works as a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management, especially Innovation Management at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT-University). His current research interests are related to futures research and organizational foresight activities, networked innovation processes and knowledge transfer in networks and absorptive capacity. Uotila is also an Adjunct Professor (Economic Geography) at University of Turku.

Jarno Hartikainen - Journalist, Helsingin Sanomat Jarno Hartikainen is a journalist at the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat where he covers the energy sector, climate policy and the green transition. Previously he has worked as a Brussels correspondent. Hartikainen is a co-author of the non-fiction book Totuuden jälkeen (2018).

Harri Laurikka - Managing Director, The Bioenergy Association of Finland Dr. Harri Laurikka is Managing Director of the Bioenergy Association of Finland. The association aims at excellent conditions for development of sustainable and even carbon-negative biomass-based products. In this vision, renewable energy is generated from side-streams. Harri has an extensive experience in climate and energy policy since the 1990s’. He worked for 9 years as climate negotiator at the Ministry of the Environment, Finland, and was co-heading the Finnish negotiating team in three UN climate conferences including Paris in 2015. He started in his current role in 2016.

Antti Pohjoranta - Head of Technology, Neste Antti Pohjoranta works as the head of technology at Neste Corporation renewable hydrogen business platform. His work encompasses both strategic planning as well as project assignments relevant to key development activities around hydrogen based on renewable and nuclear electricity. Before joining Neste, Mr. Pohjoranta spent close to ten years at VTT Technical research centre of Finland working as scientist on fuel cells and heavy duty hydrogen mobility. He holds a doctoral degree in systems engineering from the Aalto University, Finland.

Taavi Veskimägi - Managing Director, Elering Taavi Veskimägi is the Chairman of the Board of the Estonian electricity and gas transmission system operator Elering AS since the company’s set-up as an independent TSO in 2009. Taavi is also a member of the board of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E). Taavi is the founder and the Chairman of the Board of the Estonian Defence Industry Association. In 2017, Taavi was bestowed with the Estonian state decoration the Order of the White Star as a developer of the energy sector. He has been a member of the Estonian parliament for two consecutive terms. During 2003-2005, he was the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Estonia. He held the position of Vice President of the Parliament from 2005 to 2006 and until 2007 he was the co-chairman of the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union, the main centre-right political party in Estonia.

Dariusz Zarzecki - Professor, University of Szczecin Prof. dr hab. Dariusz Zarzecki is an expert in the field of finance and business valuation and ordinary professor at the Department of Finance and Banking in the University of Szczecin. He is a co-founder and chairman of the Association of Business Appraisers in Poland (SBWPwP), chief of the MBA Programme in the University of Szczecin, and court expert in the field of business valuation and lost benefits estimation. He is also the author of many company valuations, feasibility studies, and due diligence, as well as co-author of one of the first economic analyses of the LNG terminal in Świnoujście.

Jakub M. Godzimirski - Research Professor, Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs Jakub M. Godzimirski (b.1957) is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs NUPI where he has been working since 1995 on Russia’s foreign and security policy with special attention paid to the role of energy resources in Russian strategy. Godzimirski has published several books, book chapters and articles on Russian, European and Norwegian energy policies with the leading academic publishers (Routledge, Palgrave, Ashgate). He currently leads the RUSMENA project on Russia’s policies towards the Middle East and North Africa funded by the Research Council of Norway and is also involved in several projects on Russian policies towards Europe.

Hanna Mäkinen - Senior Researcher, Pan-European Institute, University of Turku M.A. (General History) Hanna Mäkinen works as Project Researcher at the Pan-European Institute, University of Turku, Finland. Her research interests include Russia's societal and economic development, and the interplay of security and economic and societal issues. She has also studied the role of natural gas in the Finnish energy sector, with a particular focus on gas infrastructure. She has published several articles on her research topics and has been involved in various research projects related to, for instance, energy and maritime sectors.

Jukka Relander - Manager on Communications, Finnish Energy Jukka Relander is a former green politician, now employed by the central organization on energy producers and distributors. He started his career at the Institute of History at University of Helsinki, then moved to TV, Radio and other media, had a ten years excursion in green politics. As a recovering politician he is now working with the issues of climate and biodiversity at Finnish Energy, in combination of challenges set by international politics on the industry and its clients. Every now and then he goes flyfishing.

Thomas Michael Sattich - Associate Professor, University of Stavanger, Department of Media and Social Science Thomas Sattich holds a PhD in Political Science and Economics. The focus of his research is on the geopolitical implications of the sustainability transition. This includes international energy relations and industrial policy, European politics, and bilateral relations. He is leading a project to develop the 'Geopolitics of Renewables Simulation', a digital learning tool (Erasmus+-funded, with Ghent University, Delft University of Technology, and Technische Universität München). In the context of the Advanced Gas and Carbon Dioxide Storage in Aquifer project (EEA grant), he is leading social-science research on the societal implications of the mentioned technologies.

Jurgita Šilinskaitė-Venslovienė - Head of LNG Commerce, Klaipeda LNG Jurgita Šilinskaitė-Venslovienė is the Head of LNG Commerce at the Oil and LNG terminals operator „Klaipėdos nafta“. She is responsible for FSRU based Klaipėda LNG terminal and onshore small scale LNG Bunkering and Truck loading terminal. She has extensive experience in management of diverse infrastructural projects in different sectors and previous work experience covers Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, National Development Institute and private holding company. Recent years actively involved in development on new value chains such as hydrogen and CCS.

Sirpa Pietikäinen - Member of European Parliament Sirpa Pietikäinen is a Finnish Member of the European Parliament, representing the European People’s Party (EPP) since 2008. She is a former Minister of Environment and a former Member of the Finnish Parliament. Among her many duties, she is actively working in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) and the Environment and Public Health Committee (ENVI). During her whole carrier, Pietikäinen has been a keen advocate of combining environmental and economy issues. Currently she is most active with sustainable finance, circular economy and resource efficiency. For more details please visit http://www.sirpapietikainen.net/.