Speaker Bios

Mr. Ville Relander
(Tuesday 27 November - Operation Abattoir)

Ville Relander is working as a Project Manager at the Helsinki Wholesale Market. He is responsible for promoting the City of Helsinki Culinary Culture Strategy.  Culinary culture development is about a new model for thinking and activities where the city strives to work to promote high-quality food and rich flavours. At the same time, the city will decrease the ecological footprint of public food services and the Helsinki food chain and will prevent climate change. The city’s development choices increase the well-being and comfort of residents and boost Helsinki’s identity and international profile through culinary culture. The core of the activities lies in utilising and boosting the existing structures for food services, event production and culinary culture in cooperation with private innovative actors operating in the food domain. By these means, Helsinki will be made a top-quality European culinary city.

Key individual projects in the City of Helsinki culinary culture development programme include the organic meal programme for children, development of the Wholesale Market (The Abattoir), integration of culinary culture development into the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project and city events as well as augmentation of small-scale farming in or near residential areas. 

Ville Relander has a MBA and he has had various roles in innovative hospitality companies both locally and internationally. “Never thought I would end up here, but I love it! “

Ms. Johanna Mäkelä
(Tuesday 27 November - Food, culture and modernity in Finland)

Professor Johanna Mäkelä is a sociologist specialised in food and consumption. She has studied social and cultural aspects of eating since the beginning of the 1990s. She has been particularly interested in meal studies and styles and practices of eating. In her research she has used both quantitative and qualitative methods and data. She received her doctorate in 2002 from the University of Helsinki. Today she is the professor of food culture at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Previously she was the head of a research group focusing on food consumption at the National Consumer Research Centre in Helsinki, Finland.  Mäkelä is currently working in research projects that explore e.g. future and sustainable food consumption, consumers’ food classifications and practices in everyday life contexts and Nordic eating habits.

Ms. Linda Neunzig
(Tuesday 27 November, Food Hubs)

Linda Neunzig is the owner of Ninety Farms, a 50-acre sustainable farm in Arlington Washington. There she raises all natural grass-fed USDA beef and Katahdin lamb for Seattle area restaurants and local farmers markets. Linda has attended "Terra Madre" in Turin, Italy three times as a US delegate for Slow Food USA. Linda was also one of five farmers chosen from across the United States to represent the American Farmer at the New York City Meals On Wheels benefit in July of 2008 and was featured in Gourmet Magazine as one of the producers. In 2008 Linda was awarded the "Women Who Inspire" award by the National Women's Chef and Restauranteurs Association for her work in Agriculture.

Farming is not Linda's only profession; she is also the Agriculture Coordinator for Snohomish County. There she is a part of the county's Economic Development Division providing assistance to farmers as well as leading the Snohomish County Focus on Farming conference, the Agriculture Sustainability project, the counties centennial farms project, a first ever Western Washington wine competition at the Evergreen State Fair, leading the creation of a year-round farmers market and food hub as well as many other agriculture-related projects.

Mr. Koichi Gono
(Tuesday 27 November - Food in Fukuoka)

Graduated from the Department of Law Kyushu University, Mr.Gono joined Fukuoka Prefectural Government in 1981 and mainly worked for International Affairs. In 1989, he worked for London Office of Japan Local Government Center in UK. Returned to Fukuoka and then in charge of FDI and Overseas Business Development for local enterprises.

Thanks to his efforts, a number of companies and overseas entities set up their premises in Fukuoka Prefecture. These include a French Automobile company, a German Medical company, Vietnam Consulate General. In his career as a prefectural official, he was engaged in initiatives of various fields. One such effort was the promotion of "Asianbeat" website, which introduces Japanese Pop Culture to the Asian Youth. This site attracted 11.17 million accesses last year and numbers still continue to increase. Besides, he worked to facilitate overseas development of programming language "Ruby".
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Since April 2012, he has served as his current position of Chief Executive, Economy, and Tourism & Culture Bureau of Fukuoka City Government. He currently is actively working as a Fukuoka City official to promote Fukuoka's beauty industry and food brands as well as travel and tourism to the city

With experiences of visiting 40 countries, he hopes Fukuoka will open up a new vista of the future and challenge for it.

Mr. Pekka Timonen
(Wednesday 28 November - World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 – Design Embedded in Life)

Pekka Timonen is currently working as the Executive Director of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project. He was also the chairman of the Helsinki´s bidding committee for the designation. 

He is now on leave of absence from the position of Cultural Director of the City of Helsinki. He is a member of the board in the Finnish Museum of Architecture and a member of several other boards. Mr Timonen holds an MA degree in history.

Ms. Ali Grehan
(Wednesday 28 November -PIVOT Dublin)

Ali Grehan, who devised and coordinated PIVOT Dublin; Dublin’s bid for World Design Capital 2014, was appointed Dublin City Architect in January 2008. Her career has spanned a range of private practice in Dublin and London, as well as work in the Public Service.

She was a member of the RPA team that delivered Dublin's first Light Rail system in the mid nineties and joined Ballymun Regeneration in 1999 where she was appointed Chief Architect in 2006.

She studied Architecture in UCD and the Metropolitan University of North London.  She was recently elected to the Council of the RIAI where she continues to advocate for the value of better design by way of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Mr. Matti Kaijansinkko
(Wednesday 28 November - Jätkäsaari Urban Development Case)

Mr. Matti Kaijansinkko has worked for the past twelve years as a project leader at the City Planning Office of the City of Helsinki. His main project for the past years has been the West Harbor project which is part of the planning and development of Helsinki’s former harbor areas, Jätkäsaari and Hernesaari, into new residential and commercial areas in the coming decades.

Mr Kaijansinkko has studied Architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology and at the University of Washington, Seattle. Before his career at the City of Helsinki, he had his own architecture office and worked also as a part time professor of city planning at the Helsinki University of Technology and Aalto University during 1999-2010.

Mr. Bob Donegan
( Wednesday 28 November, A New Tree Grows in Seattle)

Bob Donegan is the president and a director of Ivar's Inc., a chain of restaurants headquartered in Seattle, Washington.  He celebrated his 15th anniversary at Ivar's in February. 

Since Mr. Donegan began in 1997, the company has doubled the number of stores it operates and tripled its wholesale sales of chowders. If all the cups of chowder Ivar's sold in 2011 were poured into 8-oz cups and stacked one atop the other, they would be as tall as 156 Mount Rainiers.  Alternately, if pumped across the street from Ivar's secret chowder plant into Boeing's assembly plant in Everett, the chowder would fill sixteen 777 freighters.

When not grilling fish, Mr. Donegan has been active in all matters relating to the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and revitalization of Seattle’s waterfront. He served on the Stakeholder Advisory Committee, sat on the Citizens Advisory Board for Colman Dock, and is working with various other committees to help design the new waterfront park. Prior to serving with Ivar's, Mr. Donegan served as chief financial officer and executive vice president of planning and development for Peet's Coffee and Tea from 1994 to 1997.

Mr. Donegan has served on the Chamber’s Board of Trustees since 2006.  In addition, he serves on the boards of the Seattle Aquarium, the Seattle Historic Waterfront Association, the Seattle Sports Commission, the Boeing Classic Golf tournament, the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts, and Sterling Financial. He graduated from the first UW in Madison, Wisconsin, and has a graduate management degree from Yale.  Bob's wife, Lisa, teaches classes in International Business and Economics.

Mr. Simon So
(Wednesday 28 November - A Journey to Connect the Past to the Present – Columbia Pump Station, Metro Vancouver )

Simon So graduated in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia and is a registered Professional Engineer. Mr. So is the Deputy Manager of the Engineering and Construction Department at Metro Vancouver. Since joining Metro Vancouver in 1987, he has been involved in a wide variety of water and wastewater utility infrastructure projects. He currently manages an engineering design team and an in-house construction group responsible for design and construction of major water and wastewater pipelines, pump stations, treatment plants and other infrastructures.

Mr. So was instrumental in integrating sustainability principles as a core component in the design and implementation of water and wastewater utility infrastructure projects at Metro Vancouver. This success was a result of management commitment, strong political support, an application of innovation technological solutions. One of his successful sustainable projects, Integrated Utility Greenway, was the recipient of the first Sustainability Award by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. Such projects demonstrated that sustainability can be established as a key principle in large, traditional municipal projects with ingenuity and little additional costs.  

Mr. Richard Stewart
(Wednesday 28 November - Rethinking Waste Management ... the Design Difference )

Richard Stewart was first elected as a Coquitlam City Councillor in 2005, and was elected Mayor in 2008. Since 2009, he has been a Director on the Metro Vancouver Board and has served on many committees, such as Labour Relations Bureau, Regional Planning and Parks Committees. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Utilities Committee and a member of the Mayors’ Committee.

Prior to being elected to Coquitlam Council, Mr. Stewart served as the MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville, holding the Francophone Affairs portfolio, as well as Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Education. 

Mayor Stewart has also served as Chair of the National Housing Economic Research Council in Ottawa, as President of the Canadian Home Builders’’ Association of BC, as President of the School District 43 Parent Advisory Council, and as a member of the committee that writes the National Building Code of Canada in Ottawa.  His career has included a decade as publisher/editor of a housing trade magazine, as well as many years as a consultant in building technology and building codes, consumer housing issues, land use, government relations and communications.

Mr Hannu Kähönen
(Wednesday 28 November, Meet the Designer – Case Helsinki Trams (Transfer from Huutokonttori to the University Library)

Mr. Hannu Kähönen is one of the leading Finnish industrial designers and a central figure in the Finnish design community. As a CEO and founder of Creadesign, Mr. Kähönen has strong experience in working with a wide range of customers from industrial companies to service providers and the city administration. The modern edition of the iconic tram as well as Helsinki’s street trash containers are most acclaimed work of Creadesign in the field of public space.

Currently Creadesign is working with the Ministry of Employment and the Economy to renew the national design policy for Finland. Mr. Kähönen was awarded the Pro Finlandia medal in 2001, Kaj Franck award in 2009 and he has held many positions of trust along the years, including the Chair of the Board of the Design Museum, Helsinki. The Arts Council of Finland appointed Mr. Kähönen an Artist Professor for 2005-2011. Besides his work, Mr. Kähönen is teaching industrial design at the Guangdong University of Technology School of Arts and Design in China.

Ms. Ritva Alatalo
(Wednesday 28 November - ”Case Aviapolis - Lunch Presentation by Ms. Ritva Alatalo, CEO of Vantaa Innovation Institute Ltd.)

Vantaa Innovation Institute helps to accelerate the growth of Vantaa and the Aviapolis area into an international business environment. We support the internationalization of local companies, assist foreign companies to establish operations in Vantaa and promote the creation of new jobs, especially in the Aviapolis area. We work in close cooperation with international companies, universities as well as research institutes.

Vantaa Innovation Institute Ltd is a non-profit development company. The company was established in 2009 and is owned by the City of Vantaa. Our head office is located in the heart of the Aviapolis area, in the Plaza Business Park. The Aviapolis area is located nearby the international airport, forming one of the fastest growing business clusters in Finland.

Ms. Sara Ikävalko
(Wednesday 28 November - Design Exchange Program by Sitra)

Ms. Sara Ikävalko is the Participatory Designer in the City of Lahti. Her background is in strategic and industrial design, user centered design and usability. In Lahti her work includes the development of a new competition model that involves citizen perspectives from the very beginning. The focus is the area around the train station and how it can be developed with citizens, low carbon, and increased connectivity to the greater Lahti area.

Mr. Santtu von Bruun
(Wednesday 28 November - Design Exchange Program by Sitra)

Mr. Santtu von Bruun is the Head of Strategy in the City of Lahti. He is responsible for making and implementation of city strategy and is also involved in large number of strategic development and policy projects concerning for example strategic urban planning, sustainable development, climate policy and local economic development. He is member of Government's urban policy committee and has been involved in several large national specialist groups for example 'Government foresight report on climate and energy policy 'and 'ERA17 Energy Smart Built Environment 2017'.

Mr. Kimiaki Hyodo
(Wednesday 28 November - Hakata Station Urban Development Case)

Mr. Hyodo currently serves as the Deputy General Manager of Strategy Management Department, Corporate Planning Headquarters of Kyusyu Railway Company.

As a specialist of this field, he has extensive experiences in urban development centered on train stations and overall designing and operation of railway structures. He studied civil engineering at university and acquired a professional engineer certificate in 1997

Since joining Kyushu Railway Company in 1990, Mr.Hyodo has been engaged in a wide range of operations in the area of railway structures such as research, planning, designing as well as operation and management. In 2007, he worked on research and planning of improvement project for station areas in the Kyushu region. Mr. Hyodo also played a key role in the Hakata Station Renewal Project in terms of redevelopment plan for station building and station front plaza.

He is now involved in various activities ranging from business plans covering all aspects of railway services to urban development projects which are designed to make the best use of train stations.

Mr Patrik Scheinin
(Wednesday 28 November, Introduction to Future Learning Environments)

Patrik Scheinin (1956) is a Professor of Education and the dean and former vice dean of the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Among other administrative tasks he is vice chair of the Board of the Open University of Helsinki, board member of the Helsinki Area Summer University, vice chair of the Central Campus Library Committee of the University of Helsinki, and a former vice director of the Department of Education.

Scheinin is vice director and a founding member of the Centre for Educational Assessment, has been a member of the steering group of the Finnish PISA Project, and is a board member of the Helsinki University Collegium for Advanced Studies. He is an expert and referee for several scientific journals, foundations, organizations, and conferences, and has been scientific expert for projects of the The Finnish ministry of Education, the Finnish National Board of Education, as well as of the Swedish National Agency for Education. He is a member of several national and international research associations.

His research interests are cognitive abilities and thinking skill, self–concept and self–esteem, their structure and development, educational interventions promoting development of cognitive abilities and personality, educational assessment and evaluation research, as well as teaching and learning in higher education.

Mr. Jordi Joly

(Wednesday 28 November - Barcelona Politics and Management Deal)

Mr. Jordi Joly is the CEO of Economy, Finance & Business at Barcelona City Hall. He works also as a Counselor at Institut Català de Finances (Catalan Institute of Finance) and as an Academic partner of Esade Business School.

Mr. Joly started as entrepreneur and founded his own company in 1990. During his career he has been related with automobile sector and its auxiliary industry, software development, electronics and mechanic engineering. Mr. Joly has studied Public Administration Management at Esade Business School and Public Finance Administration at Harvard. 

Mr. Ville Meloni  
(Wednesday 28 November - Helsinki Region Infoshare - Facilitating, Empowering and Supporting Openness and Co-Creation)      

Ville Meloni has worked with Forum Virium Helsinki since November 2009. He manages the Helsinki Region Infoshare project (www.hri.fi), which aims to make public regional data easily available for the residents, communities and anyone else with an interest in it.

Ville is responsible for the execution of the project together with the City of Helsinki Urban Facts and other communities involved. Previously, Ville has worked on project management and business development areas for Movire Ltd, Starcut Ltd. and Sonera. He has a Masters' Degree in Economic Sciences.

Mr. Marco Steinberg
(Wednesday 28 November - Wrap-Up and Panel Discussion)

Marco Steinberg is Strategic Design Director at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra) where he leads the Fund's capability to apply design to help shape strategic improvements. Current initiatives include Helsinki Design Lab (www.hdl2010.org), a global initiative to help address today's large scale strategic redesign & transformation needs; Design Exchange Programme (www.insidejob.fi) embedding designers within public sector organizations; and overseeing the design of Low2No, a transitional strategy to create national carbon free urban development in Finland (www.low2no.org).

His previously experiences include: Professor at the Harvard Design School (1999‐2009); advising governments on SME & design funding strategies; and running his own design & architecture practice. He received his BFA and BArch from Rhode Island School of
Design and his MArch with Distinction from Harvard University.

Mr. Will Cardwell
(Thursday 29 November, Designing an Ecosystem for Start-ups at the Aalto University)

Will Cardwell was named Senior Advisor, Global Alliances at Aalto University in September 2012. In 2010, he founded and built the Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship, which is responsible for technology transfer and innovation services at Aalto. He has also spent 15 years in the Finnish high-tech environment, as CEO of a Valimo Wireless, CEO of Finland's largest incubator chain Technopolis Ventures, and Partner at venture capitalist Eqvitec Partners and Venture Partner at Conor Ventures.

In addition, he has been a researcher and lecturer of Aalto School of Economics, Aalto School of Science, and Aalto Executive Education.

Mr. Stephan von Rump
(Thursday 29 Novmember - Case Giraff Technologies Ltd. (Stockholm))

Stephen Von Rump is CEO of Giraff Technologies in Västerås, Sweden.  Giraff is a complete mobile telepresence solution for social care.  Stephen has extensive experience in product and service development, business planning, marketing and sales, manufacturing, customer support, intellectual property and patents, and fund raising for grants and venture capital.

He holds an M.S. Electrical Engineering degree from Washington University in the U.S.

Ms. Anne Stenros
(Thrusday 29 November - Case KONE Corporation (Helsinki)

Anne Stenros (Helsinki, Finland) graduated as Master of Architecture from University of Oulu, Finland and University of California, Berkeley. She has the doctorate in technology in the field of architectural theory from Helsinki University of Technology. Since 1995 to 2004 she acted as a Managing Director of Design Forum Finland. In 2005 she acted as Executive Director of Hong Kong Design Centre. Currently she is Design Director at KONE Corporation and responsible for the KONE Design, elevators and escalators. She has lectured around the world and written articles on the theory and philosophy of architecture, design and innovation. Her latest book Design ®Evolution (2005) is about corporate design strategy. She is the member of the board of Tampere University of Technology and has been appointed as the Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA). She is also a member of the European Forum on Forward Looking Activities (EFFLA).

Mr. Timo Valtonen
(Thursday 29 November - Case Kiosked Ltd. (Helsinki)

Timo Valtonen works as Chief Commercial Officer and Partner in Kiosked. Timo brings to Kiosked his strong international background (Europe, USA, Asia), which he gathered through his work at international corporations such as Nokia. He has strong experience in opening up new markets like China from his previous work experience where he was responsible for setting up operations and helping enterprises grow and succeed in new geographical territories.

Mr. André Noël Chaker
(Thursday 29 November - Wrap-up and Panel Discussion)

André Noël Chaker is a Montreal-born lawyer and a widely-published author in the fields of law, media, business, and technology. He studied at McGill University (BCL, LLB) and he holds an MBA from the Helsinki School of Economics (Aalto University). He is also a lawyer in the State of New York.
He currently deals with issues of sports integrity and the global fight against match—fixing in his role as Senior Advisor to the President of the Finnish Lottery Corporation. He has also been involved in the internationalization of Finnish businesses and was once a technology start-up entrepreneur. His recent book, The Finnish Miracle, is one of the best selling business books in Finland in the past year. He is also one of the most popular speakers on the Speakers Forum network in Finland this year. 

Ms. Riikka Salokannel
(Friday 30 November, Designing the City's Strategy – How Has Lahti Used Design as a Strategic Asset in the City Development)

Ms. Riikka Salokannel is the Development Director of Design for Lahti Science and Business Park Ltd. Her responsibilities include firstly increasing the usage of industrial design in the R&D operations of the industrial companies in the Lahti region, and secondly, to help the region´s design service companies to develop and grow their business. Ms. Salokannel is a member of the Board of the International Design Foundation in Finland which manages, coordinates and executes the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project.

She also is a member of the Steering Group of the National Design Programme coordinated by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy as well as a member of the Lahti Industrial Design Advisory Board. Ms. Salokannel is a former Design Manager of Oy Sinebrychoff Ab, a subsidiary of the international Carlsberg Group (2002-2010). Ms. Salokannel is not only a design business developer and strategist but also a designer: She is an owner and a partner of the Studio Salokannel & Toivonen / Studio S&T Crew Ky, the company established in 1993 and situated in Lahti, specializing in product and brand design.

She has also worked as a packaging designer at the Stora Enso Oy. Riikka Salokannel has degrees in woodwork design and in graphic design at Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Design.

Mr. Alastair Fuad-Luke
(Friday 30 November - Co-designing as co-futuring: Tonttila, a community case study in the
City of Lahti)

Alastair Fuad-Luke is Professor of Practice, Emerging Design Practices at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. He is a design thinker, facilitator, enabler, educator, writer and activist contributing to the international debate about how design can encourage transition towards ecologically and socially sustainable ways of living.

Since arriving in Finland in July 2011 he has worked with diverse stakeholders in the city of Lahti exploring how design can contribute to more positive societal impacts. He is the lead researcher on an EU Eco-innovera programme project entitled SHIFT (Support Systems for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Transformation). During 2006-2008 he managed the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme project DEEDS (DEsign and EDucation for Sustainability) for the Danish organisation ICIS. Author of Design Activism: Beautiful strangeness for a sustainable world (2009), The Eco-design Handbook (2002,2005,2009) and The Eco-Travel Handbook (2008), he works across academia, social communities and commercial enterprises. He is an advocate of emergent design approaches, including design for societal transition, co-design, eco-design and slow design, and is especially interested in how these contribute to developing alternative socio-economic opportunities.