Ambassador Nicola Clase currently serves as the Swedish Ambassador to Finland. Prior to that she has served as Coordinator for Migration and Refugee Issues at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for four years and as Swedish Ambassador to the UK for six years.
Nicola Clase held the position as State Secretary for foreign and EU affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office from 2006-2008. As State Secretary for Foreign and EU affairs she served as the Prime Minister’s Sherpa on EU affairs and was appointed the Swedish Government’s chief negotiator on the EU Lisbon Treaty.
From 1991 through 1999 and from 2002 through October 2004 Ambassador Clase served in the Swedish Foreign Ministry and had postings in London and Copenhagen.
Born June 8, 1965 in Gothenburg, Sweden she earned her Master Degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Stockholm. She has also studied at Beijing Teacher’s College (Beijing Shifan Daxue) in China. She served as a fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) at Harvard University 1999- 2000 and as an associate at Harvard University 2008 - 2009.
CEO of Finnish-Swedish Chamber of Commerce since 2015. Kjell is a graduate of Vaasa Business School with a degree in foreign trade. He has extensive experience of Nordic assignments and leadership and has held several key positions in Nordic organizations. He has a strong focus on business in the Nordic region, specifically regarding cooperation between Sweden and Finland focused on helping Finnish companies enter the Swedish market. Broad experience of establishing sponsorship agreements and financing through various funds, seminar arrangements, training and branding. He has given numerous lectures focusing on the business sector and cultural differences in the Nordics. In 2016 Kjell received the award “Promoter of Swedish-Finnish relations” by the Society Sweden-Finland, and the year after that he received the award "Knight of the Order of the Lion of Finland" by the President of the Republic of Finland. In 2019 received a medal of merit from the Swedish Assembly of Finland
Head of the Maritime Transport and Logistics Unit in the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport in the European Commission. The unit deals with sustainable maritime policies, maritime markets, and international maritime agreements, but also with digital and sustainable intermodal freight transport and logistics. In her earlier assignments in the European Commission, she has dealt with rail market liberalisation and coordinated the work of the European Network of rail infrastructure managers 'PRIME'. Before joining the European Commission in 2008, she has worked as a financial and business analyst in banking and telecommunications. Annika is an economist with Master’s degrees in Cybernetics in Economy and International Finance.
Director of Public Affairs and Sustainability at Stena AB. Current president of Swedish Shipowners´ Association. Former president of European Community Shipowners´ Association ECSA. As a Director of Public Affairs and Sustainability at Stena, he is a major influencer of shipping policy in Europe and globally. He holds a bachelor’s in science and is an officer in the Royal Swedish Navy (reserve). Before coming into the shipping world 15 years ago he had 12 years of experience in road-based transport and third-party logistic services.
Sinikka Hartonen works at the Finnish Shipowners’ Association as a Head of Environment and Technology. She has extensive experience in the field of transportation, especially maritime. She believes that effective use of technology and automation are key factors in improving energy efficiency as well as the safety of shipping. Sinikka started her career at sea and worked on merchant ships before joining the Finnish Maritime Administration, which later became part of the Finnish Transport Agency (FTA). In these organisations, Sinikka held several managerial and director positions with diverse areas of responsibility. She holds a master’s degree in economics, a bachelor’s degree in maritime studies (master mariner) and an eMBA from the Henley Business School.
Jacob Norrby, is the Deputy Technical Director and Head of Newbuilds & Projects at Stena Teknik. Stena Teknik is the centre of excellence for technology, contracting and innovation within Stena, guiding and supporting the transition towards sustainable shipping solutions.
He holds a Master of Science in Naval Architecture and served his first 8 years in the shipping industry with Lloyds Register. Being with Stena for the last 22 years his main focus has been concept design, newbuilding and decarbonization work.
Stena AB has activities within Ferries, Tankers, Ports, Offshore drilling, Ship Management, Real estate and Other investments. The group has a 4 billion€ turnover and 15.000 employees and operates more than 160 vessels worldwide. Stena is active in the challenge of finding sustainable energy sources for the shipping industry and has among other things introduced the world’s first Methanol ferry
Director at the Nordic Investment Bank specialising in financing infrastructure, telecommunication and transport sectors with focus on sustainability. Sustainability is a key focus area, and he has financed of a number of investment projects within electrification of rail and shipping. Harald´s main background is from corporate and merchant banking, but also from telecom corporate finance during his engagement in Telenor Group. Harald holds a master’s in economics and finance from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. In the recent years Harald has also finalised Executive Masters programmes in corporate finance and sustainable business strategies at the Norwegian School of Economics – NHH.
MSc (Econ, Logistics), is the Managing Director of Helsinki-based ESL Shipping Ltd since 2013. ESL Shipping is part of Aspo Plc listed in Helsinki stock exchange. Together with its Swedish subsidiary company AtoB@C Shipping AB, ESL Shipping is the leading carrier of dry bulk cargo in the Baltic Sea, owning and operating 48 highly ice classed dry cargo vessels in the size range between 3,000-56,000 dwt. Annually the company’s vessels carry approximately 15 million tons of cargo. Mr Koskinen is the current Chairman of the Finnish Shipowners´ Association, Vice-chairman of the Board at Arctia Oy and represents Finland in the board of the International Chamber of Shipping in London.
Executive Vice President of Sales, and Marketing at Rauma Marine Constructions. He holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Mechanics from the University of Oulu. He has more than 40 years of experience in the shipbuilding industry. Among other things having been key in establishing the Materials Technology Division at Hollming Group. Today he holds several senior positions of trust in the industry. Serving as a board member at Interferry, chairman of DNV´s Ferry Committee, and as a member of the Advisory Board of Aalto University, Research Centre of Excellence for Arctic Shipping and Operations.
Finnish representative in NextGen Icebreakers. Mr. Gustavson holds a M.Sc (Eng) and a Dr.Tech (hc). He has also been awarded the Finnish honorary title” Bergsråd”. He is a founder of Konecranes and has previously functioned as both its CEO and CoB
Current positions of trust at: Hackman, Outokumpu, Raute, Cramo, Ahlstrom Capital, IK Investment Partners’ Funds, etc…
Past Positions of Trust: Chair: Technology Industry of Finland, Chair: Technology Academy Finland, etc…
CEO of the Finnish Shipowners’ Association as of 1 April 2017. Tiina has over 20 years of experience from leading positions within transport sector. Tiina began her career with the Finnish Maritime Administration in the early 1990’s. Before joining Finnish Shipowners, Tiina served as Deputy Director General of the Finnish Transport Agency in charge of the traffic and Information Function. She was responsible for national traffic management, icebreaking services, nautical charts and hydrographic surveys and functions related to the development of digitisation, automatisation and intelligent traffic.
In 1998 she graduated with a MSc. (Engineering) from the Helsinki University of Technology majoring in geographic information technologies. Tiina has extensive experience with national and international representations, including e.g.; IALA Council Member; National Treasury Insurance Sector Advisory Board; Finnish Forestry Industry Development Centre Tapio Supervisory Board etc.
Eero works as Ministerial Adviser at the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications. His main responsibilities include international negotiations in maritime transport, particularly the ongoing negotiations on FuelEU Maritime in the EU, and on reduction of GHG emissions from ships globally in the IMO. Mr. Hokkanen holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences (International Relations) from the University of Turku. Previously in his career he has worked as Communications Manager at Arctia Ltd, the owner and operator of Finnish icebreakers, and as Senior Adviser at the Finnish Embassy in Oslo, Norway.
Head of Supply Chain Management in Business Unit Finland at SSAB Europe Oy. SSAB is a global steel company that has main production operations in Sweden, Finland and the United States with total production capacity of 8.8 million tons. SSAB is taking the lead in decarbonizing steel industry and aims to be the first to offer fossil-free steel to the market in 2026 and largely eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from its operations around 2030.
Antti has a M.Sc. (Tech) in Industrial Engineering and Management. His area of responsibility comprises of External logistics, Supply planning, and Customer service. He has been working more than 10 years in various Supply Chain Management managerial roles in SSAB and Ruukki.
Ellen J. Eftestøl is Professor of Civil and Commercial Law at the University of Helsinki. She holds a Doctor of Law degree from the University of Oslo and has been granted the title Docent of Civil Law from the University of Helsinki. She is in charge of the InterTran Research Group for Sustainable Business and Law at the University of Helsinki. In addition she holds a part time position as Adjunct Professor at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo.
Her major subjects are European Commercial Agency Law (dissertation) and International Trade and Transport Law. She has published internationally on these topics. At present she teaches International Carriage of Goods, Nordic and European Contract Law, International Sales Law, Tort Law and International Private Law. She has previously been teaching Legal Theory and Family Law. Her teaching languages are English, Swedish and Norwegian.
Béatrice Schütte is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Law. She is affiliated to the Legal Tech Lab and also a member of the Intertran research group.
Béatrice holds a doctoral degree from Aarhus University in Denmark. Her main research focus is on the regulatory approaches to artificial intelligence and liability as well as comparative law and EU law, but she is also interested in maritime law, environmental law and sustainability.
Dr. Anu Bask is a Senior Research Fellow at the Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Finland. Previously she has worked in several positions at the Aalto University School of Business. She serves as Director of logistics and business part of InterTran Research Group, and as Director of the Kataja's Finnish Graduate School of Logistics and Supply Chain Management. She also serves as Senior Associate Editor (SAE) for International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management.
Her research interests include service supply chains, supply chain relationships, modularity approach in services, sustainable supply chain management and sustainable transport. She has published over twenty-five articles in international refereed journals and a number of other publications. She has been a co-editor of a special issue of the International journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management and MarIus Periodical, and a reviewer for several international journals and conferences. Her research has been published in Service Science, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, International Journal of Services and Operations Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, International Journal of Logistics Management, Journal of Transport Geography, among others.
Inge Vierth is Senior Analyst at VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute). Her main field of expertise are freight transport and logistics and transport policy - covering all modes, with a focus on shipping during the last years. Previously, she worked as transport analyst at SIKA (Swedish Institute for Transport and Communication Analysis (1999-2006), as research officer at KFB (Swedish Transport and Communications Research Board (1997-1999) and as consultant at TFK+VTI Transportforschung GmbH in Hamburg (1989-1996). Inge holds degrees in business administration (Wirtschaftsakademie Schleswig-Holstein, Flensburg) economics (Christian Albrecht Universität, Kiel). She worked two years as assistant at Hamburg university (Dep. Europäische Politik and Verkehrswissenschft). She is German, lives since 1994 in Sweden. She is an experienced transport researcher in transport economics and modelling and policy has led or worked in several Swedish and international projects.