Speakers 2019 Aleksei Samosuev, Embassy of the Republic of Belarus24.09.2019During his diplomatic career, Aleksei Samosuev has served in various tasks in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, mainly in the area of development policy with Russia, the CIS Countries and Eurasian Integration. Also he has worked as chief Counsellor for External Policy in the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus, has experience with the EU. In October 2018 Aleksei Samosuev was appointed as Ambassador of Belarus in Finland.... Read more...Sun Liwei, Embassy of People´s Republic of China24.09.2019Sun Liwei is the Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Helsinki. He has previously worked in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade and Ministry of Commerce. His career has taken him abroad to Embassies in Greece, Macedonia, Norway and UK.... Read more...Zhanna Sartbayeva, Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan20.09.2019Zhanna Sartbayeva is the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Finland. She has a long career in the Diplomatic service, she has also worked as Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. Before being stationed in Finland earlier this year, she headed the International department, Staff of the Senate of the Parliament.... Read more...Vidar Karlsson, Eimskip20.09.2019Vidar Karlsson is Senior Manager, Trans-Atlantic and Short Sea, at Eimskip Iceland. Eimskip is a leading transportation company in the North Atlantic with connections to international markets and is specialized in worldwide freight forwarding services, with the vision of providing excellence in transportation solutions and services.... Read more...Peter Nyman, HOST19.09.2019Peter Nyman is a well-known journalist and media professional. Earlier this year he went back to host one of Finland’s all-time favourite tv shows, Uutisvuoto (Finland’s version of UK’s Have I Got News For You), now at MTV3. Before that he worked for more than eight years as news anchor for the same channel. He is also a sought after moderator at top seminars as well as a popular communications coach.... Read more...Olli-Pekka Hilmola, LUT University17.09.2019PhD Olli-Pekka Hilmola is working as a Professor in LUT University, in Kouvola, Finland. He is affiliated with numerous int. journals through editorial boards, including Industrial Management and Data Systems, Decision Support Systems, and Expert Systems with Applications. Dr. Hilmola has published more than 160 refereed journal manuscripts. He has been part of numerous international research projects. In this year he was serving as Visiting Professor in Beijing Jiaotong University.... Read more...Hannu Mäkinen, Finnish Customs16.09.2019Hannu Mäkinen is the Director General of Finnish Customs as of 1 May 2019. He has previously held several positions in the Finnish Ministry of Finance, where he most recently worked as Director General of Budget Department for 13 years. Mr Mäkinen is a Licentiate of Laws and a Master of Social Sciences by education.... Read more...Rune J Arnøy, Port of Narvik11.09.2019Over the years, Rune J Arnøy has worked in banking, business administration, and currently as CEO and Port Director in Narvik, Norway. He has plenty of experience from Board and Trustee Commissions. He was educated as Bank Economist at the Norwegian Bank Academy, and later obtained Executive Master’s Degree in Logistics.... Read more...Jaakko Saha, Tuoretie Oy10.09.2019Jaakko Saha works for Tuoretie Oy as Export Logistic Manager. He has 35 years of experience in logistics management and exports of food products. His specialities are f.ex. customs clearances, forwarding and temperature-controlled logistics. Tuoretie Oy is the logistics company for various Finnish food producers.... Read more...Staffan Herlin, Finnlines Plc09.09.2019Staffan Herlin has a long experience in shipping business. Since his Master’s (Econ) degree in 1983 he has been faithful to the leading Finnish shipping company, Finnlines Plc and has held several positions within customer service, operations, profit units, sales and marketing, since 1995 on management level. In the late eighties, he represented the company in one of it’s agencies in Lübeck for almost four years. On top of his daily duties within Finnlines, Staffan Herlin also holds different positions in several commercial and institutional boards and committees.... Read more...Ola Strand, Bluwrap02.09.2019Before joining BluWrap, Mr. Strand was responsible for building Exxon’s regional center in mid-Norway as an independent company with focus on logistics and sales. He also has worked as District Manager for Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS), and was appointed CEO of SAS Ground Services Norway AS before being promoted to the CEO of SAS Norway AS. Mr Strand has also served as the CEO of the second largest retail group in Norway, Coop Norway AS. In Bluwrap he works as a Chief Executive Officer.... Read more...Petteri Portaankorva, City of Kouvola23.07.2019M.Sc. (Civ.Eng.) and M.Sc. (Econ.& BA) Petteri Portaankorva is working for the City of Kouvola as a development director. He has a wide experience especially in transport and intelligent transport systems both in private and public sector since late 1980’s. Nowadays his work deals with economic development and vitality of the city, public affairs and strategic co-operation, business and university co-operation, urban policy and transport system development. He is responsible for the certain strategic development projects of the city.... Read more...Mona Mansour, North Sweden European Office (Brussels)01.07.2019Mona Mansour is Senior Adviser European Affairs at North Sweden European Office in Brussels. Mona Mansour is responsible for Internal Market issues including EU-transport policy. She has over 20 years of working experience with EU Affairs, previously as EU Specialist/Senior Consultant at leading global consulting firms.... Read more...Arja Suominen, Finnair10.06.2019Arja Suominen is the Senior Vice President for Communications and Corporate responsibility at Finnair, and her team is heading Finnair’s responsibility actions, that are increasingly important as consumers and governments alike expect more actions from airlines to reduce the CO2 im-pact of commercial aviation. Arja has extensive experience of managing communications and corporate responsibility in an international and fast changing environment – for the past 8 years at Finnair, and prior to that, as the head of Nokia’s global communications organisation.... Read more...Tero Kosonen, VR Transpoint28.05.2019Tero Kosonen, M. Sc, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, VR-Group Ltd, VR Transpoint. He has a long history in expert and management positions in rail logistics. He has been responsible for infrastructure consulting and planning, production and sales of railway freight operations during his career. Kosonen is a member of the Confederation of Finnish Industries' (EK) logistics committee. He is also the leader of the Finnish delegation of the freight working group between VR Group and RZD. VR Transpoint is an experienced, diversified and skilled logistics provider – both on rail and road. We offer rail logistics as well as national and international road logistics services to answer the heavy industry’s needs – transportation of mass goods is what we do best. We also provide diverse rail logistics export, import and transit transports and related added value services. ... Read more...Jarkko Rantala, WSP Finland Oy29.03.2019D.Sc. (Tech.) Jarkko Rantala is working at WSP Finland Oy as a business unit manager in Business & Logistics business area. He has a long career in academic research and education at Tampere University of Technology, where he was acting as a professor in transportation systems and logistics. He has also background in leadership of sales and business areas in trucks and construction equipment, and as a leading expert in logistics in consultancy companies. His greatest professional passions are freight transports, transport demands in diverse businesses and the development of logistics concepts and related business models. ... Read more...Juha Kenraali, Traficom14.03.2019Juha Kenraali works in Finnish Transport and Communications Agengy Traficom, responsible for e.g. data issues and market based transport pilots. Previously worked in pharmaceutical industry, Finnish Customs and Ministry of Finance. Master Degree in Statistics. ... Read more...Antti Pursiainen, VR Transpoint20.02.2019Antti Pursiainen is the Sales Director, railway logistics Russia and CIS countries at VR Transpoint. Antti has 20 years’ experience of sales management from several business areas in Russia and CIS-countries. ... Read more...Martti Husu, Kouvola Innovation Oy08.02.2019Martti Husu is the Managing Director of Kouvola Innovation Oy. On top of leading the company, his main operations are stakeholder co-operation and international business. He is strongly involved in the development of the North Europe – Asia container train connection.... Read more...Anu Kujansuu, Kouvola Cargo Handling Oy25.01.2019Anu Kujansuu is the Marketing Director of Kouvola Cargo Handling Oy, the company in charge of China block train sales, train loading and documentation in Finland. Kujansuu is responsible for the key account management on the Kouvola-Xi’an route. Kujansuu has over 20 years’ working experience from freight forwarding and Customs procedures.... Read more...Marita Toikka, Mayor of Kouvola16.01.2018Marita Toikka is the Mayor of Kouvola since 2017. She has a master’s degree in law and a long experience in Municipal Administration. She has previously worked for the Cities of Imatra and Lappeenranta. Marita Toikka is an active spokesperson for the City of Kouvola and promoter of the unique North European logistics centre. ... Read more...Nancy Li, Scand-China International Link12.01.2018Nancy Li is the General Director of Scand-China International Link Oy in Finland. She is also Senior Advisor and representative of Kouvola Innovation Oy in the Railgate Finland China Express operation in China.... Read more...
