EXPERIENCED NORDIC COACH AND MENTOR POOL
Pelle Tornell has over 25 years of experience of scaling companies as founder, entrepreneur, investor and advisor. He co-founded Enlight Interactive and served as the CEO from the start to the IPO on Nasdaq / Stockholm six years later. Before that he was the co-founder and CEO of an educational software company.
Before starting his own entrepreneurial ventures Pelle was active in the Kinnevik group, an investment company focused on building and investing in growth companies.
Pelle is also a speaker, researcher and author on the topic of decision making in high growth firms. In 2018 he founded the ScaleUp Academy, the predecessor to the Nordic ScaleUp Academy.
Anders Wahlquist is the CEO and co-founder of advertising agency group B- Reel, which helps global brands communicate successfully through innovative use of storytelling and technology.
Before B-Reel Anders successfully established three micro brewery brands and ran a waterfront restaurant and nightclub in Stockholm, Sweden. The advertising work and the beers have been awarded with a long list of international awards. Anders has an MBA from Lund School of Management after which he cut his teeth working directly with Jan H Stenbeck, late founder of the Sweden based multinational conglomerate Kinnevik. Anders has made the cover of Advertising Age as one of the worlds' 50 most creative people.
Pär-Jörgen Pärson has been a general partner at Northzone since 2004. At Northzone, his primary areas of focus are disruptive businesses in consumer internet, health and fintech.
His portfolio includes multi-billion dollar exits in market-defining companies such as Spotify, iZettle and Avito, as well as Pricerunner, Jasper, Videoplaza, and current companies like fuboTV, Hopin, Spring Health, Stockeld Dreamery and others. He appeared several times in Forbes' Midas List.
Before joining Northzone, Pärson ran his own investment firm and was a consultant at McKinsey. He holds an MBA from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Dr Tero Ojanperä is an entrepreneur, investor and board professional. He has versatile abilities and background at the intersection of technology, business, and creativity.
He is chairman and co-founder of Silo.AI, the largest private AI lab in the Nordics, and Professor of Practise, Intelligent Platforms, Aalto University, Finland. Tero is the author of Platform Strategy: Transform Your Business with AI, Platforms and Human Intelligence.
Previously, he was Nokia's CTO and Chief Strategy Officer. Fast Company crowned him the seventh most creative person in business, and he is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum.
Tero will offer mentoring on the topics like; innovation, growth & sales strategy, board work, how to build a platform company.
Maija Itkonen, Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Gold&Green Foods
Industrial designer-turned food industry disruptor Maija Itkonen is on a mission to change the way we eat. Maija co-founded Gold&Green® Foods in 2015 with a vision of breaking the meat habit with uncompromised plant-based protein in terms of all the nutritional and environmental benefits. Today Gold&Green®'s hero product Pulled Oats® is sold in over ten countries around the world. When not spending time with her family, Maija can be found at the Gold&Green® design lab, where she continues to innovate toward a sustainable, healthier and more flavorful future.
Maija will advise on design, product & consumer goods.
Aape Pohjavirta is a founder and president at Funzi. Aape is a simplification, transformation, and storytelling partner for courageous entrepreneurs with a big goal.
His background is in global digital and mobile industries, the intersection where tech meets human. He has made, seen, and learned from more mistakes than you'll ever see and his job is to prevent others from repeating those mistakes and empower them to find new, novel mistakes.
Aape's focus is to create simple from the complex. To create better things instead of making things better.
Aape will help you regarding the simplification of ideas, storytelling & presentation skills, getting there where you need to be.
Mari Luukkainen has found her happy place at the iterative and constantly growing world of global tech startups such as Freska, Paxful, Yousician, DealDash and now a 140M€ early-stage VC firm Icebreaker.vc with 60+ early-stage companies in Nordics and Baltics while operating as a growth advisor for her growth hacking agency Truly.
Mari has scaled multiple companies from under a 1M€ ARR to over 10M€ ARR in 2-3 years, raised funds and built scalable go-to-market models for almost every continent. During her 20+ years of this, she has been involved in the growth of hundreds of clients and projects for over 10 years in affiliate marketing and another 10 years in developing companies as a consultant or an in-house at startups and a VC firm.
Mari will advise on scaling business, fundraising, growth hacking and marketing.
Mikko Suonenlahti is a business builder who has supported technology innovators and founders of companies that invent the future for almost 40 years.
He has been active 25+ years as an independent director/chair on 100+ boards and VC in Europe and the US and 10 years in operations.
Mikko focuses on strategy, finance, corporate governance (audit & risk management, nomination and compensation committees, IPO readiness) and operational support, and he's passionate about early-stage start-ups that want to create shareholder value in the 100's of millions.
Mikko will offer mentoring on strategy and finance, Investor presentations and financial plans, fundraising strategy, corporate governance and troubleshooting.
Tech investors, geopolitical advisers, sustainability strategists and writers; Aurore Belfrage spends her time at the intersection of artificial intelligence, the climate and international relations. She is the founder of the sustainability platform SusTechable and a former investor at EQT Ventures. She blogs, vlogs and podcasts about using tech to create a sustainable society both climatically and economically. She sits on several boards, including Ferronordic, Bubbleroom and Sweden's contributions to the world exhibition Expo2020. She is an advisor to the City of Helsingborg, an esteemed lecturer and moderator, and in 2011 she founded the hyped global gift card Wrapp with Skype founder Zennström and Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman as early investors.