Professor Curtis J. Milhaupt (Stanford University)
Curtis J. Milhaupt is the William F. Baxter - Visa International Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and a Senior Fellow, by courtesy, of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He is also a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and an elected member of the American Law Institute. An internationally recognized expert on corporate governance with a focus on East Asia, he is the author of numerous scholarly publications and the co-author or editor of seven books and teaching volumes. He was awarded the ECGI's Cleary Gottlieb Prize in 2024 for his paper, The (Geo)Politics of Controlling Shareholders.
Professor Mariana Pargendler (Harvard Law School)
Mariana Pargendler is a Beneficial Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Her scholarship focuses on corporate law, corporate governance, and contract law from economic and comparative perspectives. She has published over 30 articles in various journals and edited volumes, including the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the American Journal of Comparative Law, among others. She is also a coauthor of The Anatomy of Corporate Law: A Comparative and Functional Approach (Oxford University Press, 2017), a leading academic treatise on comparative corporate law. Her work has been translated into several languages, and she has lectured widely at universities across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Her article on the grip of nationalism on corporate law was awarded the Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Prize by the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) in 2020.
Axel Hagelstam (Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency)
Axel Hagelstam is a Master of Political Sciences and works as a Director of the Planning and Analysis Department of the Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency. He has extensive experience both nationally and internationally. He has previously worked as a special researcher in the Defence Policy Department of the Ministry of Defence, as a special adviser to the EU Parliament, and as a special expert in the NATO and EU delegations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2014 to 2017, Axel was the first partner country representative to the Chairmanship of the NATO Civil Protection Group and the second Chair of the EU Council Working Group on Countering Hybrid Threats during Finland's EU Presidency in 2019.
Professor of Practice Klaus Ilmonen (Hanken School of Economics)
Klaus Ilmonen is a corporate partner at Hannes Snellman Attorneys. His practice includes corporate transactions involving public corporations. Klaus has been appointed Professor of Practice at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki and teaches corporate and securities law. His research interests are focused on political approaches to corporate law and corporate governance. Klaus holds a doctorate in law from the University of Helsinki and a LL.M. degree from Columbia Law School in New York (Stone Scholar); has also been a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School. He has been deployed with Finnish forces in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Lebanon.
Professor of Practice Timo Kaisanlahti (University of Helsinki)
Timo Kaisanlahti is a Professor of Law and Regulation of Financial Statements at the University of Helsinki. His research interests include corporate law, financial statements law, and the negotiability of shares. He has published extensively in these areas and collaborates internationally on various legal research projects. In addition to his academic roles, he is actively involved in various organizations. He serves as a director in two international hedge fund vehicles and is the Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Mortgage Society of Finland. He is also the Chairman of the Finnish Accounting Standards Board.
Professor Harri Kalimo (Vrije Universiteit Brussel; Brussels School of Governance)
Harri Kalimo is a professor, Jean Monnet Chair and the Co-Director of the 3E (Environment, Economy and Energy) Research Centre at the Brussels School of Governance at Vrije Universiteit Brussels. He also holds the post professor of environmental and economic law at the University of Eastern Finland Law School. As an educator and researcher, Harri has over the past three decades been pioneering theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches at the nexus between different areas of environmental and economic law, such as sustainable trade, circular economy and green procurement. The aim of his work is to support sustainability transitions in an era of the triple planetary crisis, increasing economic competition and intensifying geopolitical tensions.
Dr. Shruti Kashyap Esq. (Senior Lecturer, Örebro University School of Business; Researcher, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)
Shruti Kashyap is a Postdoctoral Researcher with GEDB and the Sustainable Finance Lab. She is invested in transparency, accountability, risk, and resilience across various fields. Her previous work delves into these themes within accounting and law, particularly in the context of financial markets in Sweden and the EU. Currently, her research focuses on the regulation-practice nexus in the international FinTech arena, emphasizing innovation, risk, and competition. Shruti holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland, specializing in environmental and financial sector law, and is admitted to the New York State Bar. She completed her PhD in Business Administration at Uppsala University where she also works as a researcher at Department of Business Studies. She has extensive experience in investment banking and the public international sector.
Dr. Heli Korkka-Knuts (University of Helsinki, Visiting Fellow, LSE)
Heli Korkka-Knuts works as a University Lecturer in Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki. She has been appointed Associate Professor of Criminal Law (tenure track) at Åbo Akademi University as of August 1, 2025. She is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science for the Winter and Spring term of 2025. Her research focuses on criminal law, criminal policy, and regulatory sanctions, particularly in corporate environments. The leading theme in her recent research has been to combine behavioral empirical data accumulated in various disciplines, regulatory theory, and doctrinal research into a novel behavioral approach to corporate sanctioning. Her work has been published in European Business Law Review, New Journal of European Criminal Law, and European Law Review, among others. She is the co-author of Yleinen rikosoikeus, which is one of the most established handbooks covering criminal liability doctrine in Finland.
Professor Jesper Lau Hansen (University of Copenhagen)
Jesper Lau Hansen is a Professor of Company Law and Financial Market Law at the University of Copenhagen. His primary fields of research are company law, financial services and securities trading, EU law and comparative Nordic law. He served with the ESMA Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group from 2011-16 as an academic member and as its chair, and he has been a member of various of the Commission’s expert groups on company law (Reflection Group 2010-11, ICLEG since 2014 and onwards). Jesper received his Danish LL.M. (cand.jur.) in 1989 and worked first at a major Danish law firm while taking his Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from the University of Cambridge in 1993, before returning to the University of Copenhagen in 1995 where he earned his Doctor Juris (Dr. Jur.) in 2001 and became a full professor in 2003. He has worked as a publicly appointed expert on several Danish committees, inter alia on insider dealing, SIFIs, and drafting the present 2009 Companies Act. He serves on the academic councils of the Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law (SCCL) and the European Capital Markets Institute (ECMI) in Brussels and is on the editorial boards of the pan-Nordic Company Law Journal (NTS) and the European Company and Financial Law Review (ECFR).
Dr. Erik Lidman (Stockholm University)
Erik Lidman is an Associate Professor of Corporate Law and has held positions at Gothenburg University and the Stockholm School of Economics. He has written multiple articles in the areas of corporate governance, company law and stock market regulation, and have consulted for organisations such as the OECD, the World Bank and the Swedish Corporate Governance Board. He is an editor of the Nordic Journal of Corporate Law and a co-manager for the Corporate Governance Forum. He is also a rapporteur to the Securities Council, one of Sweden’s representatives in the ESMA Takeover Bids Network, and the secretary to the Nasdaq Stockholm Disciplinary Committee. He holds a PhD in private law with a focus on company law and stock market regulation.
Dr. Alezini Loxa (Lund University)
Alezini Loxa is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in EU Law at Lund University Sweden. She is a qualified lawyer with an LL.B. and LL.M. in EU Law from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has a PhD in EU law from Lund University and has been part of the LU Agenda 2030 Graduate School. She is the author of the monograph Sustainability and EU Migration Law, Tracing the History of a Contemporary Concept (CUP 2025) which is forthcoming Open Access and she is the editor of the Nordic Journal of European Law.
Jukka Maksimainen (McKinsey & Company)
Jukka Maksimainen is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. He leads the firm’s global work in energy and materials and is part of the firm’s shareholder’s council, the firm's global governance board. Drawing on decades of experience with natural resources and advanced-industries clients, Jukka excels in operational turnarounds, strategic growth, and sustainability. He has led transformations for leading mining, oil & gas, and industrial companies, delivering substantial gains in throughput and cost efficiency. Jukka has developed strategies for multi-commodity mining companies, directed large scale operational turnarounds, and served as a project director for one of the world’s largest mining operations. He also supports sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms with portfolio strategies and asset optimization. A former commodity trader and strategist, Jukka holds an M.Sc in Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology, bringing a unique blend of technical expertise and business acumen to his clients. Jukka has published several articles on sustainability, circularity, and decarbonization across the energy, materials, and building sectors. His latest piece, created in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, was published during the Annual Meeting in 2025 and focused on Circularity on the built environment.
Dr. Heikki Marjosola (University of Helsinki, Visiting Fellow, LSE)
Heikki Marjosola is Associate Professor of Financial Law at University of Helsinki and holds a title of docent at University of Turku. His research interests include corporate governance, corporate finance law, securities law, and regulatory governance of financial markets. His work has been published in leading journals such as Common Market Law Review, Regulation & Governance, German Law Journal, and European Law Review. His recent publications include Digital Finance in Europe: Law, Regulation, Governance, a special volume of the European Company and Financial Law Review (De Gruyter, 2022, co-edited with Prof. Emilios Avgouleas). Previously, he held a position of assistant professor of law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Marjosola has worked as a capital markets and M&A lawyer in a Helsinki-based law firm, and he regularly acts as an independent advisor in legal matters relating to banking and finance as well as EU law. Marjosola is a member of the Finnish Takeover Board. In 2024-2025 he is a visiting fellow at LSE Law School.
Professor Jukka Mähönen (University of Helsinki)
Jukka Mähönen is a Professor of Cooperative Law at the University of Helsinki. He previously served as a Professor of Law at the University of Oslo and chaired Commercial Law at the University of Turku. In research and teaching, his fields of expertise are corporate and cooperative law, corporate governance, finance and securities law as well as law and economics. He has written several books and articles on these subjects in multiple languages. Nowadays he works with articles concerning sustainable business models, digitalisation and cooperativism, institutional investors, public market actors and theoretical framework on the regulatory dynamics between the public and the private.
Linda Piirto (The Finnish Foreign Ministry)
Linda Piirto is a specialist in responsible business practices, handling a wide range of issues related to trade, developing countries, and sustainable development as a Commercial Counsellor at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This includes matters related to human rights, labor standards, and gender in trade agreements, EU regulations, and other international cooperation. Her work involves coordinating the EU-Mercosur trade agreement negotiations and participating in the government's anti-corruption efforts. In March 2025 Linda will start as a Lead, Sustainable Value Chains and Government for UN Global Compact Finland. Previously, she was responsible for preparing responsible business policies at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Linda holds a Master of Social Sciences degree from the University of Helsinki.
Dr. Mikko Rajavuori (Turku University)
Mikko Rajavuori is Assistant Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Turku. In addition to is academic work, Rajavuori advises companies, NGOs and the government on issues as varied as corporate governance, foreign investment and business & human rights. Before his appointment, Rajavuori worked as Academy of Finland Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Climate change, Energy, and Environmental law (CCEEL), University of Eastern Finland. Rajavuori specializes in economic law both at the national and international level. His research interests cover business law, human rights and investment law as well as sustainability regulation. Rajavuori’s scholarship has appeared in prolific international journals, including Regulation & Governance, European Journal of International Law, Transnational Legal Theory and Energy Policy, and in several edited collections published by Cambridge University Press and Edward Elgar.
Michael Ristaniemi (EU Commission, DG GROW) Michael Ristaniemi works as a Legal and Policy Officer at the European Commission. He became a Senior Associate Researcher at the Centre for Environment, Economy and Energy at the Brussels School of Governance. His research focuses on market economy sustainability, and in 2020, he completed his Ph.D. in international competition law at the University of Turku, Finland. His interests include the role of business in society and the norms that frame that role, such as corporate responsibility and sustainability, company law, corporate governance, and competition law. In 2020, he appeared in Finland's "35 under 35" list, published by Talouselämä business magazine. He also speaks frequently at various events. His experience ranges from policymaking and broad legal counselling to academic research and analysis, as well as practical project management.
Dr. Jaakko Salminen (Lund University)
Jaakko Salminen is Associate Senior Lecturer at Lund University Faculty of Law and holds a Title of Docent in Civil Law at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law. His research focuses on the role of private law in structuring, governing and regulating post-industrial forms of production such as the current global value chain economy. Most recently he has focused on legal techniques of governance along value chains that allow firms and legislators to extend their reach beyond entity and jurisdictional boundaries for reasons such as economic efficiency, sustainability and security of supply. Methodologically grounded in transnational and comparative private law, his work has appeared inter alia in the American Journal of Comparative Law, European Review of Private Law, Transnational Legal Theory and Competition and Change.
Executive Vice President Nora Steiner-Forsberg
Nora Steiner-Forsberg is the Executive Vice President, Legal and Compliance at Wärtsilä. She holds an LLM from Helsinki University, Finland, and a Master of European Law from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. She has a strong legal background, having worked as a General Counsel at Fortum, judge at the Market Court in Helsinki and as a Senior Associate at Hannes Snellman Attorneys in Helsinki and Van Bael & Bellis in Brussels. Nora is also a member of the Board of Directors of Nammo AS.
General Counsel Christian Ståhlberg (Neste Oyj)
Christian Ståhlberg works as a General Counsel and Executive Vice President at Neste Oyj. He’s responsibilities are Group’s legal affairs and compliance. He holds an LLM degree from the University of Helsinki and his previous roles include working as a lawyer at Pohjola Pankki Oyj, Neste Oil Oyj, and Roschier. He has held various trust positions, including being a member of the legal committee at the Finnish Chamber of Commerce and a board member at Nynas AB in Sweden. He has also lectured at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.
Tuomas Tapio (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Tuomas Tapio is the Director General of the Department for International Trade at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. In this role, he oversees Finland's trade policy, including EU common commercial policy, market access, regulatory affairs, and export control. Before his current role, Tuomas served as Finland's Ambassador to the OECD and UNESCO in Paris from 2019 to 2022. He has also held various other significant positions, such as Director for Central, Western, and Southern Europe at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Director of External Economic Relations at the Prime Minister's Office, and Director of Policy Planning at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Tuomas holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen (Chief of Defence Command Finland)
Vesa Virtanen is the Chief of Defence Command, holding the rank of Lieutenant General in the Finnish Defence Forces. He holds a Master of Social Sciences degree in International Politics from the University of Helsinki. He has an extensive career in the military, having served in various significant roles. He was a Fellow at Harvard University in Cambridge, US, from 2012 to 2013. Since 2022, he has been the Chief of Defence Command Finland. He has also made notable contributions to academic literature. His publications include The Arctic in World Politics: The United States, Russia, and China in the Arctic – Implications for Finland, published by Harvard University, Modern Legislation on Crises (one of 6 authors), Finnish and Austrian Security Policy, and The Suppression of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.
Dr. Valtteri Vuorisalo (VP Defence and Security, Unikie)
Valtteri Vuorisalo is a part-time Professor of Practice in National Security and Security Policy at Tampere University. He is also a Visiting Professor at King’s College London in the Department of War Studies. Dr. Vuorisalo’s research focus revolves around the theme of flow security, the security impact of data and information flows especially, and how the rapid evolution of technology creates new dependencies in the international security architecture. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Tampere. In the private sector, Valtteri is the Vice President for Defense and Security at Unikie.