Sustainable Energy Reimagined

Philippe Vanrie

Engineer by education, Philippe currently works as Senior EU Advisor & Brussels representative for the University of Vaasa (FI), and as Investment Manager for the Noshaq Investment Fund (BE). He regularly collaborates with Mecatech, the Walloon Advanced Manufacturing Cluster, and with Deloitte Belgium on various EU inititives. He recently chaired the Horizon Europe Mutual Learning Exercise on Knowledge Valorisation (EC).

During 25+ years, Philippe was CEO of two European Innovation Networks: EBN (the European Network of Business & Innovation/Incubation Centers), and EUREKA (the inter-governmental Innovation Network developing publicly-funded mechanisms for highly-innovative SMEs).

Minna Martikainen
Rector, University of Vaasa 

Minna Martikainen is the rector of university of Vaasa since 2024. She has previously worked as the vice-rector responsible for research at the University of Vaasa. Before this, she worked as a professor of financial accounting and dean for education at Hanken School of Economics (Finland). Martikainen has also worked as a professor at Aalto University School of Business, vice-rector for international affairs and professor of business finance and accounting at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), researcher at the University of Vaasa, and visiting researcher at Louisiana State University, USA. In addition, Martikainen has extensive experience in the business sector through board memberships and expert assignments.

Joakim Strand
Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering, Finnish Government

Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Joakim Strand is responsible for matters related to the European Union within the Prime Minister's Office that are not covered by the Prime Minister. For example, he represents Finland in the EU General Affairs Council. Minister Strand is also responsible for state ownership steering policy.

Strand is serving his third term as a Member of Parliament. He was elected to Parliament from the Vaasa constituency in 2015. He has served as the Chair of the Committee for the Future and the Intelligence Oversight Committee and as a member in the Commerce Committee and the Defence Committee, among others. Strand has also worked as the Chair of the City Council of his hometown, Vaasa, the Chair of Regional Assembly of Ostrobothnia, the Chair of the Kvarken Council and the Chair of the Board of two energy companies.

Signe Ratso
Deputy Director-General

Signe Ratso is Deputy Director-General and a member of the Management Board of the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. She is the Chief negotiator for Horizon Europe Association. She is also responsible for Open Innovation and for citizens’ engagement in research and innovation policy and for overall coordination on international cooperation. 

Tomas Kåberger
Director, Energy Area of Advance, Professor of Industrial Energy Policy, Chalmers University of Technology

Dr Tomas Kåberger is professor of Industrial Energy Policy at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, where he is Director of the Energy Area of Advance. In addition he serves as Executive Board Chairman of Renewable Energy Institute in Tokyo, and as a member of the board of some energy related companies.

He has previously held leading positions in companies working with bio-, wind- and solar energy. In the 1990s he was a member of the government energy commission launching the re-regulated electricity market in Sweden. From 2008-2011 he was Director General of the Swedish Energy Agency, and later he served eight years on the board of the power company Vattenfall mainly operating hydro and nuclear plants. In 2011 he served as vice chairman of the Council of the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi.

Kåberger has an MSc in Engineering Physics and a PhD in Physical Resource Theory. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and The Swedish Association of Energy Economists.

Muriel Attané
Secretary General
EARTO - European Association of Research & Technology Organisations AISBL

Muriel Attané is a EU Public Affairs professional with a strong track record in strategic programming of EU policies helping research organisations to develop successful European strategy, as well as support them in setting-up and running powerful and efficient EU representation and network. Her 22-years career includes EU Public Affairs’ management roles in a large research organization such as TNO in the Netherlands where she led and expanded EU RD&I fundraising (subsidies & B2B) across various and EU funding programmes. She thrives in leading large European and International Networks of Research Organisations such as EARTO today (350+ corporate members over 30+ countries) in ever-changing political and economic environments with the help of very effective, multi-cultural & multi-background 
teams. 

Massimo Busuoli
Chair of UnILiON
Head of EU Office, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Massimo Busuoli is the director of NTNU Brussels Office. Physicist, he started his career as a researcher in ENEA, the second research body of Italy. Since 2006 he has operated in Brussels, first as director of ENEA Brussels office and afterwards as Head of European Affairs unit before joining NTNU in 2016. Experienced European projects coordinator, throughout his career he has also contributed to the establishment of important European initiatives such as the European Energy Research Alliance, EERA, (where he was Secretary General between 2003 and 2006), and UnILiON (where he was Chair between 2017 and 2019, and is currently Deputy-Chair).

Hannu Mäntymaa
Managing Director, Wärtsilä Finland Oy
Vice President, Voyage Services, Wärtsilä Marine 

Hannu Mäntymaa holds a Master of Science in Engineering and has dedicated 23 years to Wärtsilä, serving in various expert and leadership roles across the globe. As the Managing Director of Wärtsilä Finland Oy and Vice President of Voyage Services for Wärtsilä Marine, Mäntymaa is deeply inspired by Wärtsilä’s strategic vision to drive the decarbonization of the marine and energy sectors. He is a strong advocate for ecosystem collaboration, believing that collective efforts are essential to achieving sustainable and innovative solutions for the future. 

Tomas Häyry 
Mayor, City of Vaasa

Tomas Häyry has been the Mayor of the City of Vaasa since 1 March 2011. He has worked at City of Vaasa since 2006, first as Legal Expert in City Planning and Development, then as Legal Expert in Technical Services and after that as Director of Development and then as the Director of City Technical Services. Mr. Häyry also sits on and chairs many Boards of Directors in Regional Development Companies. He holds a Master's Degree in Law from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Häyry had a significant role in initiating the GigaVaasa-project, which offers a unique and attractive industrial zone dedicated to battery value chain manufacturing, and he is still a driving force of the GigaVaasa-team. 

Marko Kohtamäki, 
Professor and Director of the Strategic Business Development research Group, University of Vaasa

Marko Kohtamäki is a Professor of Strategy, and a director of the "Strategic Business Development" (SBD) research group at the University of Vaasa, serves as a Visiting Professor at Luleå University of Technology, and as a Docent at University of Oulu, and has served as an associate fellow at the University of Oxford, Said Business School. Prof. Kohtamäki takes special interest in digital servitization, organizational change, strategic practices, business intelligence and strategic alliances. Prof. Kohtamäki has published in distinguished international journals such as Strategic Management Journal, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, International Journal of Management Reviews, International Journal of Production Economics, Long Range Planning, Technovation, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, amongst others. His papers have received number of best paper awards, and he has been recognized by the Stanford list amongst the 2% of world’s highest cited researchers in his field. 

Mika Grundström 
Vice-rector, University of Vaasa

The vice-rector of research at the University of Vaasa is Ph.D. Mika Grundström.Grundström has a doctorate in engineering, and his main area of focus is telecommunications technology and signal processing.

The vice-rector of research is responsible for the strategic development of research, innovation and commercialisation activities, and doctoral education. He promotes the principles of responsible and open science, international research activities and the international and national development of research funding. He actively follows the research policy and related legislation and is responsible for their implementation at the university. The vice-rector also actively represents the university in national and international research networks. The vice-rector acts as the rector's deputy and is a member of the university's management team.

Marcello Colledani
Professor and Director of the remanufacturing Lab, Polytechnic University of Milan 

Associate Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department of Politecnico di Milano. He has carried out research activities at the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity (LMP) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research areas include stochastic modelling and analysis of manufacturing systems for their control and reconfiguration, modelling and analysis of advanced mechanical de-and remanufacturing technologies and systems for circular economy. He is the coordinator of the EU H2020 large scale demonstration project FiberEUse, targeting composite recovery and re-use. He is the coordinator of the Regional working group on “De-and remanufacturing for Circular Economy”, within AFIL, the Lombardy Region cluster on intelligent factories. Within the group, a publication was recently issued on best industrial practices in Lombardy on Circular Economy. Moreover, he leads the development of the H2020 Screen project “Methodology for Inter-regional Cooperation for Circular Economy”.

Antti Vasara
President & CEO, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland 

Dr. Antti Vasara is the President & CEO of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd since 2015. VTT is a visionary research, development and innovation partner and one of Europe's leading research and technology organisations (RTOs) with almost 2 400 people and turnover exceeding 280 MEUR. Antti Vasara is member of the Executive Board of EARTO (European Association of Research and Technology Organisations) and a member of the Board and the Audit Committee of Elisa (largest communications operator in Finland). He is also a member of the Finnish Research and Innovation Council, a member of the Board of Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and a member of the Supervisory Board of Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company.
 

Heidi Kuusniemi 
Professor, University of Vaasa

Dr. Heidi Kuusniemi is a professor in computer science focusing on positioning technologies and systems as well as the coordinating professor for the university’s Digital Economy research platform. She also leads the Kvarken Space Center at the University of Vaasa, which focuses on promoting satellite data innovations. She is also a part-time research professor in satellite navigation at the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute of the National Land Survey and the President of the Nordic Institute of Navigation. She has a M.Sc. (Tech.) degree (with distinction) from 2002 and a D.Sc. (Tech.) degree from 2005 in information technology, respectively, from Tampere University of Technology, Finland. She served as a member of the council for natural sciences and engineering at the Academy of Finland in 2019-2021 and is a member of the Finnish Academy of Technical Sciences since 2023. She was a member of the scientific advisory committee for GNSS (GSAC) at the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2013-2020 and is a deputy member of the working group WG NEXT on next generation GNSS at DG DEFIS (Directorate-General for Defence, Industry and Space) at the European Commission. 

Åsa Ågren Wikström
Regional Councillor, Region of Västerbotten, European Committee of the Regions (CoR)

Ågren Wikström is a member of the Committee of the Regions. In the CoR, she has been rapporteur on the Revision of LULUCF and Effort Sharing regulations and on the Revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. She is a member of the the County Council of the Region Västerbotten and of the Committee of EU-affairs in the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR).

Wolfgang Münch
Deputy Head of Unit, Smart & Sustainable Growth, DG Regio 

Wolfgang Münch is a Senior Expert in the Directorate General Regional and Urban Policy in the European Commission. His work covers investments of Cohesion funds in R&I, Industrial Transition, digitalization, climate and the environment as well as those in transport systems and urban mobility. Wolfgang’s previous assignments were supervising Cohesion fund investments in Italy, Malta and Poland. He started his work in the Commission in the field of agricultural policy and enlargement and holds a PhD in agricultural economics. 

Mathias Lindström 
Director, Kvarken Council

Mathias Lindström is the Director of the Kvarken Council EGTC, which is a neutral cooperation platform in the Kvarken region between Finland and Sweden. Mathias is a lawyer by training, and has an extensive background in cross-border cooperation, having worked as the Director of the Kvarken Council since 2011. 

Mathias was one of the driving actors behind the world’s greenest passenger ferry, which since 2021 traffics between Umeå and Vaasa and is jointly owned by the two cities. Now, Mathias and the Kvarken Council actively work to promote Nordic Connector, the initiative to build a fixed link over the Kvarken strait.

Tiiu Treier
Head of International Cooperation and Funding Office, Enterprise Estonia

Tiiu Treier has been focusing on international R&D cooperation for the last 7 years. She has wide experience working with Eureka Network to support cross-border collaboration and is now making an effort with her team to have more Estonian companies participating in EU calls. She is a true fan of international cooperation and of the positive results that arise from that.

Patrick Child
Deputy Director General, DG Environment, EC

Patrick Child is currently Deputy Director-General in DG Environment at the European Commission with particular responsibility for the EU’s zero pollution strategy, chemicals legislation, urban agenda, research and innovation for environment and communication.

Suvi Aho
Strategy and district service manager, City of Vaasa

With 14 years of experience in co-creation, network leadership, citizen engagement, EU and project financing, and sustainable urban and rural development, she serves as the Strategy Manager for the City of Vaasa. She is passionate about building ecosystems and driving the urban energy transition