Ilari Aho, Vice President, New Business Development & CSR, is responsible for Uponor Group’s strategic research and innovation management, new business development and regulatory affairs. He currently serves as Vice Chair of World Green Building Council, Board Member and Treasurer of the European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP), Executive Council member of the European Heating Industry Association (EHI), Vice President of ENCORD (European Network of Construction Companies for R&D) and member of the Industry Advisory Forum of CEN-CENELEC.
Speakers & presentations
Dr. Juha Kostiainen holds a position of EVP Urban Development in YIT Corporation and he is a member of the Group’s Management Committee. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tampere (strategic development of city-regions). Mr. Kostiainen has published several articles on regional economic development policy, competitiveness of city-regions and urban development.
Mr. Ryan Lee is an Industrial Engineer (BA) with a Master’s Degree in Logistics from Incheon National University. He is experienced as a Smart City Infrastructure and System Architect with skills in Software Defined Data Center Design, Implementation, Operation as well as Cloud Datacenter Operation and System Consolidation. Mr. Lee is responsible for managing the International Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) Smart City Integrated Operation System Center in Incheon, Korea.
Dr. Markku Lehmus is the Chief of Forecasting Unit at the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA). Before joining ETLA in 2015, he was a researcher at the VATT Institute for Economic Research. Dr. Lehmus previously worked at the Labour Institute for Economic Research (PT) where he also contributed to macroeconomic forecasting alongside academic work. He has published several academic papers on issues such as macroeconomic modelling and taxation. He holds a PhD from the University of Turku where has also worked as a lecturer.
Mr. Toni Luhti has 20 years' experience in IT and a vast and recent research knowledge of economics. He has worked across multiple global and local technology companies in leading positions. Mr. Luhti has as his core skill the demystification of technology and strives to transform technological possibilities into business cases. He currently reads for a PhD at the University of Jyväskylä on the factors that prevent companies from transforming their business models thus losing competitive advantages.
Mr. Jukka Mäkelä has been Mayor of the Finnish city of Espoo since 2011. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the National Coalition Party in 2007. Mr. Mäkelä has been involved in the local politics of Espoo as a City Counsellor since 1997, as Chair of the City Board 2005–2008, and as Chair of the City Council 2009–2010. He holds a Master of Science's degree in Technology from the Helsinki University of Technology.
Prof. Dr. Čedo Maksimović is a Civil Engineer with a specialisation in the field of applied Fluid Mecanics Hydraulics and Hydrology of urban water infrastructure systems and surface flows.
He earned his MSc degree and doctorate from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade and was a professor at Imperial College London 1996-2018. Now an Emeritus professor for Water and Environmental Systems, Prof. Maksimović is one of the world's leading experts in the field of Urban Water.
Dr. Sami Pakarinen is Chief Economic Policy Advisor in Confederation of Finnish Industries EK. He has a PhD in Quantitative Methods in Economics from the Aalto University School of Business. In the years 2014-2018 he worked as Chief Economist at the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries (CFCI). Before that he worked as Economist with Pellervo Economic Research and as a researcher at the Department of Economics at the University of Eastern Finland.
Mr. Timo Pesonen is the European Union's Director-General of Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. He has previously acted as Director-General for Communication at the European Commission and as Head of Cabinet for Vice-President Olli Rehn, who was in charge of the Economic and Monetary Affairs (2010-2014) and of the Enlargement (2004-2009). Mr. Pesonen holds a Master's Degree in Social Sciences and International Politics from the University of Tampere.
Mr. Kimmo Tiilikainen is the Finnish State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance. He holds an MA degree in Forestry from the University of Joensuu. Mr. Tiilikainen has been a Member of the Parliament since 2003 and has many years' experience as Minister of the Environment (2007-2008), Minister of Agriculture and the Environment (2015-2017) and Minister of the Environment, Energy and Housing (2017-2019). He chaired the Council for Natural Resources from 2007 until 2011.
Mr. Peter Vesterbacka is the founder of FinEstBay Area Group, a startup that plans to build a tunnel from Helsinki to Tallinn. Mr. Vesterbacka has experience as a mobile game developer and was formerly responsible for the marketing of the gaming company Rovio Entertainment (that developed the globally popular game "Angry Birds").
Dr. Jonathan Woetzel is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey's business and economics research arm. He leads McKinsey's Cities Special Initiative and is responsible for convening McKinsey's work with city, regional, and national authorities in more than 40 geographies around the world. Dr. Woetzel is a co-chair of the non-profit think tank, the Urban China Initiative—a joint venture of Columbia University, Tsinghua University, and McKinsey—that aims to develop and implement solutions to China's urbanization challenges.