Cities in a dynamically evolving European context

Associate Partner, Synocus – Synocus has been a forerunner in developing the practice of ecosystem orchestration since the late 1990s. Synocus brings stakeholders together to form ecosystems that provide extraordinary performance.

Environmental Director of the City of Lahti – Elina Ojala is the Environmental director of the city of Lahti, the European Green Capital 2021. In Lahti has also an ambitious climate-neutrality target for year 2025, which is 10 years ahead of Finland's national target. Elina's team is coordinating the measures to meet the climate-neutrality target and the team is also in charge of the city's environmental policy as a whole. Elina holds a degree of Master of Science (Tech.) in environmental engineering and has specialized in water resources management. Before joining the city of Lahti she worked at the Finnish Ministry of agriculture and forestry, electricity company and regional administration.

Director of Regional Cooperation, City of Turku – Turku has succeeded in combining economic growth with emission reductions and is on a very promising path to carbon neutrality by 2029. Mr. Pekka Sundman has long and varied work experience in the private as well as the public sector. 2007-2013 General Director in Governmental Centre for Economic Development, Transport and Environment in South-West Finland, 2013 – 2021The Director of City Development Group, City of Turku, 2021 – Director of Regional Cooperation. Master´s degrees in law (Trained on the Bench) and economics.

CTO, Kempower – Kempower is a rapidly growing provider of electric vehicle charging solutions with its head office in Lahti. Veikkolainen has a background in mechanical engineering and has worked in technology development and innovation roles at companies in the field for nearly two decades.

Chair of the Board, Unikie – Esko Mertsalmi the co-founder and current Chair of the Board at Unikie, a leader in the development of automated vehicles, brings a long career in the software industry to the pioneering work Unikie is doing in the automotive sector, joining expertise in mechanical engineering, automation, and artificial intelligence technology to pioneer the mobility solutions of the future. Unikie has seen strong international growth and is positioned to be a key partner to the automotive industry well into the future.