Satu Teerikangas is professor of management at the School of Economics, University of Turku and Honorary Professor at University College London, where she worked 2010-15. Satu bears a cosmopolitan background, cutting across several countries and continents. Prior to an academic career, Satu worked for Shell in the Hague and Aberdeen. In her research, she has shifted from a focus on post-M&A integration management & cultural change to appreciating how leadership can help address grand challenges. She is editor of the Handbook of M&A (Oxford University Press) and Research Handbook of Sustainability Agency (Edward Elgar). Presently, she is co-director of the transdisciplinary biodiversity-respectful leadership consortium (BIODIFUL) funded by the Strategic Research Council of Finland. Satu’s research has appeared on BBC, Financial Times and Forbes. She is passionate to understand how to unleash our potential in building sustainable futures.
Saara Vauramo is the Head of Nature unit at Ramboll Finland and serves as a professor of practice at the Department of biological and environmental science at the University of Jyväskylä. Saara has a long history with the city of Lahti, where she worked as the environmental director and development manager. During her tenure, the city of Lahti was selected as the European Green Capital for 2021. Saara's current passion is assessing the environmental impacts of land-use projects that are complex and potentially have conflicting objectives, to find solutions that really matter. Saara aims to enhance collaboration among various stakeholders and to promote the development of better solutions for nature.
Natalie Mueller is an Assistant Research Professor and environmental epidemiologist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). She specializes in health impact assessments of urban interventions, exploring how changes in urban form—such as superblocks and green corridors—and transport initiatives, including walking, cycling, and electric micromobility, influence population health. Natalie integrates traditional risk-assessment methods with innovative modeling approaches and collaborates closely with stakeholders to incorporate health considerations into urban development.
Christopher Raymond is a Human Geographer and Professor of Sustainability Science based at the Ecosystems and Environment Program, University of Helsinki. He is co-affiliated with the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS) and the Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki. He leads the Human-Nature Transformations Research Group. He is currently the Executive Director of the International Association of Society and Natural Resources and Director of the Enabling Multispecies Transitions of Cities and Regions (MUST) Strategic Research Council Project. He graduated with his PhD in 2012 at the University of South Australia. Before starting his PhD he was an environmental policy officer in the South Australian Government and manager of the award winning Laratinga Wetlands in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia.
His research focuses on conceptualising and assessing the diverse values of nature, and finding new ways of embedding them into sustainability transformations. His research commonly examines new ways to represent and engage diverse communities (including other species) in nature-based solutions planning in urban areas. He has written a number of seminal works on senses of place, socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services, and most recently was the Coordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Values Assessment where his team co-created an inclusive typology of values for navigating transformations towards a just and sustainable future. His work contributes to urban and regional planning, biodiversity conservation and restoration planning, sustainability science and human geography.
Professor Susan L. Prescott, MD, PhD, is an artist, pediatrician, immunologist, and award-winning author, internationally recognized for her pioneering research on the early environmental determinants of health and disease. She is Professor of Planetary Health at the University of Western Australia and Director of the Center for Planetary Consciousness and Global Flourishing at the Nova Institute for Health in Baltimore, where she also leads the Nova Network—a global transdisciplinary community advancing planetary health—and the Earthrise Community, which explores spiritual approaches to collective transformation.
Her work promotes awareness of the deep interconnections between personal and planetary health, inspiring creative, integrated, and compassionate approaches—grounded in wisdom and reciprocity—for social and ecological justice and flourishing futures. She is Editor-in-Chief of Challenges - Journal of Planetary Health, a journal advancing transdisciplinary dialogue in planetary health, and founding Director of the ORIGINS Project, a large-scale >$30 million intervention birth cohort of 10,000 families designed to improve lifelong physical and emotional well-being.