Nort­hern Power | Hydro­gen The­med Busi­ness Forum

Simo Kekä­läi­nen

Simo is a dyna­mic mar­ke­ting & sales lea­der with a pro­ven track record in sales growth, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion & glo­bal pro­duct launc­hes. He’s also an ent­repre­neur who deli­vers mul­ti­lin­gual key­no­tes and mode­ra­tes events worldwi­de. Simo is exci­ted to host Nort­hern Power with Pia for the second year in a row and looks forward to hea­ring the latest upda­tes and news about groundbrea­king Nor­dic hydro­gen pro­jects!

Pia Erkin­hei­mo

Pia is an inno­va­tion lover, who wants to do good for the pla­net whi­le making money. She just joi­ned an exci­ting jour­ney into nano­tech­no­lo­gies at Nor­dic Nano Group pro­ducing non-toxic, rare-earth-metals free nano­ma­te­rials for solar col­lec­tors and ener­gy sto­ra­ges. In addi­tion, she ser­ves as Chairwo­man role at Aqsens Health and con­ti­nues her board mem­ber work at LUT Uni­ver­si­ty, ran­ked 10th best uni­ver­si­ty in the world in UN’s Sus­tai­nable Deve­lop­ment Goal #13, Cli­ma­te Impact. Pia has been wai­ting all year long for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to co-mode­ra­te Nort­hern Power with Simo. CU in Oulu!

Antoi­ne Huard

Antoi­ne Huard co-foun­ded Ver­so Ener­gy in 2021 toget­her with Xavier Cai­tuco­li. He was pre­vious­ly the Deve­lop­ment Direc­tor of the Géné­ra­le du Solai­re group since 2013, whe­re he was also mana­ging direc­tor of the inter­na­tio­nal sub­si­dia­ry since 2018. Antoi­ne is admi­ni­stra­tor of the solar associa­tion Enerplan and pre­si­dent of France Ter­ri­toi­re Solai­re, a think-tank dedica­ted to the French solar ener­gy mar­ket. He gra­dua­ted from Eco­le Poly­tech­nique and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­brid­ge.

Ceci­lia Wall­mark

Dr. Ceci­lia Wall­mark has been the Direc­tor of the Cent­re for Hydro­gen Ener­gy Sys­tems Swe­den, CH2ESS at Luleå Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­no­lo­gy since March 2022. CH2ESS pro­vi­des educa­tion, excel­lent demand-dri­ven research, and acce­le­ra­tes the imple­men­ta­tion of hydro­gen in socie­ty. Dr. Ceci­lia Wall­mark has been acti­ve in the fuel cell and hydro­gen area since 1999. Today she is seen as a cent­ral per­son wit­hin hydro­gen in Swe­den. Her experiences inclu­de research, industrial mana­ge­ment, and sta­ke­hol­der proces­ses. The CH2ESS col­la­bo­ra­tion stra­te­gy is to head for broad col­la­bo­ra­tion on regio­nal, natio­nal, Nor­dic, Euro­pean, and inter­na­tio­nal levels, inclu­ding mul­ti­discipli­na­ry research and sta­ke­hol­ders across the sus­tai­nable hydro­gen value chains.

Ste­fan Gos­sens

Ste­fan Gos­sens is the VP Hydro­gen Stra­te­gy at Schaeffler’s Elect­ro­lyzer Busi­ness Unit whe­re he helps to set the cour­se for Schaeffler’s elect­ro­ly­sis tech­no­lo­gy. Among other duties, he also repre­sents Schaeffler at various hydro­gen associa­tions, such as the Hydro­gen Council, whe­re Schaeffler is a stee­ring mem­ber, and in the Ger­man Natio­nal Hydro­gen Council, both as C‑Level Sher­pa. In a pre­vious role at Schaeffler, he led the deve­lop­ment pro­gram for ener­gy sto­ra­ge and con­ver­sion tech­no­lo­gy wit­hin Schaeffler’s tech­no­lo­gy inno­va­tion depart­ment. He is exci­ted about the pos­si­bi­li­ties of hydro­gen, its crucial role in the futu­re glo­bal ener­gy chain, and hopes that the Euro­pean industry can sig­ni­ficant­ly cont­ri­bu­te to the nee­ded lar­ge-sca­le imple­men­ta­tion of hydro­gen tech­no­lo­gy.

Schaeffler Group – We pio­neer motion
The Schaeffler Group has been dri­ving forward groundbrea­king inven­tions and deve­lop­ments in the field of motion tech­no­lo­gy for over 75 years. With inno­va­ti­ve tech­no­lo­gies, pro­ducts, and ser­vices for elect­ric mobi­li­ty, CO₂-efficient dri­ves, chas­sis solu­tions and renewable ener­gies, the com­pa­ny is a reliable part­ner for making motion more efficient, intel­li­gent, and sus­tai­nable – over the enti­re life cycle. Schaeffler desc­ri­bes its compre­hen­si­ve ran­ge of pro­ducts and ser­vices in the mobi­li­ty eco­sys­tem by means of eight pro­duct fami­lies: From bea­ring solu­tions and all types of linear gui­dance sys­tems through to repair and moni­to­ring ser­vices. Schaeffler is with around 120,000 emplo­yees and more than 250 loca­tions in 55 count­ries, one of the world’s lar­gest fami­ly-owned com­pa­nies and one of Germany’s most inno­va­ti­ve com­pa­nies.

Herk­ko Plit

Herk­ko Plit is the foun­ding part­ner of the green hydro­gen pro­ducer P2X Solu­tions Oy. He has 30 years of mana­ge­ment expe­rience from the ener­gy industry. Pre­vious­ly, Plit has ser­ved as the CEO of Bal­tic Con­nec­tor Oy, which has imple­men­ted Finland’s sha­re in the natu­ral gas pipe­li­ne between Esto­nia and Fin­land, and has wor­ked for TVO, For­tum, the Mini­stry of Emplo­y­ment and the Eco­no­my and the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion. Herk­ko leads P2X with his visio­na­ry and open-min­ded atti­tu­de.

Natascha Skog

As VP of Hydro­gen at Hyca­mi­te, Natascha stra­te­gical­ly dri­ves the tran­si­tion to a low-car­bon, high-ener­gy-efficient eco­no­my through Hyca­mi­te’s revo­lu­tio­na­ry met­ha­ne-split­ting tech­no­lo­gy. Her com­mit­ment to industry decar­bo­niza­tion is reflec­ted in her role in busi­ness deve­lop­ment and hydro­gen sales, whe­re she emp­ha­sizes sus­tai­nable solu­tions and col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve efforts wit­hin the hydro­gen sec­tor whi­le leve­ra­ging her exten­si­ve network with com­pa­nies and part­ners. Natascha is poi­sed to pre­sent key insights into Hyca­mi­te’s his­to­ry, tech­no­lo­gy, and process, shed­ding light on how the com­pa­ny’s products—low-carbon hydro­gen and solid carbon—can effec­ti­ve­ly decar­bo­nize hard-to-aba­te sec­tors. Hyca­mi­te can help busi­nes­ses take actio­nable steps to reduce their envi­ron­men­tal impact.

Simen Mox­nes

Simen Mox­nes has been with Equi­nor since 1998 in a varie­ty of posi­tions and depart­ments, he has been Chief Engi­neer wit­hin mari­ne tech­no­lo­gy and has expe­rience from a varie­ty of pro­jects. Simen is cur­rent­ly wor­king as Sr. Advi­sor wit­hin New Ener­gy Sys­tems in Equi­nor.

Esa Eero­la

Esa Eero­la is Pro­gram Mana­ger at Cent­ral Fin­land Mobi­li­ty Foun­da­tion (Cef­mof), a Jyväs­ky­lä-based foun­da­tion who­se mis­sion is to acce­le­ra­te green tran­si­tion and hydro­gen socie­ty through inno­va­tion and expe­rience. Esa’s role is to iden­ti­fy, enable and sup­port ini­tia­ti­ves and part­ners­hips that dri­ve a car­bon-neut­ral futu­re. One conc­re­te example is the hydro­gen-powe­red city bus pilot in Jyväs­ky­lä.

Esa has over 30 years of expe­rience in high-tech solu­tion deve­lop­ment and mar­ke­ting and is exci­ted about leve­ra­ging it to crea­te a car­bon-neut­ral futu­re with part­ners.

Inge Hedens­tad

Inge Hedens­tad Stan­ge­land works a Pro­ject­ma­na­ger of industrial deve­lop­ment Ler­vi­ka area in the Munici­pa­li­ty of Kvi­nes­dal, which is loca­ted in Sout­hern Norway. The Munici­pa­li­ty of Kvi­nes­dal is a «strong­point» in the elect­rical sys­tem in Norway with pro­duc­tion of hydro­power, ons­ho­re wind, a lar­ge subs­ta­tion, strong trans­mis­sion-grid and a inter-con­nec­ting cable to the Net­her­lands (700 MW). The­re are two lar­ge-sca­le pro­jects of green ammo­nia (2X500 MW+) under plan­ning near the lar­ge Stat­nett subs­ta­tion. The Bel­gium com­pa­ny, Ven­tyr, wants to bring offs­ho­re wind from Sout­hern North Sea II (1400 MW) in to the «strong­point» in Kvi­nes­dal by 2031. The Era­met Kvi­nes­dal has pro­duced silico­man­gan in Kvi­nes­dal since 1974 (3x30 MW fur­nances). Era­met Kvi­nes­dal is pro­ducing 180.000 tonn silico­man­gan per year based on ore from Gabon. Era­met Kvi­nes­dal has been a pio­neer in circu­lar eco­no­my establis­hing a powerplant bur­ning CO-gas from the fur­nances to pro­duce elect­rici­ty and heat since1980 and a land­ba­sed fish­farm pro­ducing tur­bot since 1987. The Era­met Kvi­nes­dal now wants to use the slag, silica-green-sto­ne, into new pro­ducts as fer­ti­lizer in agricul­tu­re, con­struc­tion mate­rials in roads and com­po­nent in cement.

Inge works to secu­re that the Munici­pa­li­ty of Kvi­nes­dal learns the value-chains in a wide sen­se of hydro­gen, ammo­nia, offs­ho­re-wind and circu­lar eco­no­my to sup­port and chal­len­ge the pro­jects of green ammo­nia, land­fall of offs­ho­re wind and circu­lar eco­no­my pro­jects in Kvi­nes­dal and Agder region. Inge has more than 20 years of expe­rience as CEO of seve­ral of Norways lar­gest «host-munici­pa­li­ties» of hydro­power-sys­tems and ons­ho­re wind­farms. Inge repre­sents the Munici­pa­li­ty of Kvi­nes­dal in the Norwe­gian Hydro­gen Forums network of regions and munici­pa­li­ties.

Marit Vamb­heim

Marit Vamb­heim is const. Direc­tor of the renewable ener­gy busi­ness clus­ter Ener­gi i Nord, a clus­ter with 45 busi­ness part­ners from Nort­hern Norway.

Karl Schult­heis

Head of the New Busi­ness Deve­lop­ment depart­ment of Ener­giequel­le in Fin­land, cur­rent­ly focusing on acti­vi­ties in the field of the hydro­gen eco­no­my, ener­gy sto­ra­ge and agri­vol­taics. My pro­fes­sio­nal background is main­ly in the deve­lop­ment of wind ener­gy pro­jects in Fin­land with over ten years expe­rience.

Mats Ahl­berg

Mats Ahl­berg has 30 years of expe­rience as a mana­ger and pro­ject mana­ger in ener­gy and logis­tics. As Gene­ral Pro­ject Mana­ger at Uni­per Green Fuels Assets Nor­dics, Mats runs fea­si­bi­li­ty stu­dies and pro­jects that cont­ri­bu­te to the green tran­si­tion with a focus on e‑methanol. Mats is a PMP-cer­ti­fied pro­ject mana­ger and based at Uni­per’s office in Mal­mö, Swe­den, with the enti­re Nor­dic region as his work area.

Hendrik Sijts­ma

In my dai­ly live I am invol­ved in the ener­gy tran­si­tion from the moment I wake up. I live in the region whe­re earthqua­kes are taking place due to the high amounts of natu­ral gas explo­ra­tion but also because we live below sea level. The­re­fo­re this works as an int­rin­sic moti­va­tor whi­le wor­king in at Resa­to to boost hydro­gen mobi­li­ty for a clea­ner world. I am upmost proud on the fact to not only work in this lea­ding industry but also to be part a team of high­ly moti­va­ted people who focus on impro­ving the busi­ness of our cus­to­mers through the sales of hydro­gen refue­ling sta­tions.

Min­na Mentzer

Min­na Mentzer, M.Sc., is lea­ding the com­mercia­liza­tion process of bio­ge­nic CO2 at Met­sä Group. She has about 18 years of wor­king expe­rience in renewable refi­ning and pet­roc­he­mical industry. Prior to this role, she was wor­king at Nes­te in busi­ness deve­lop­ment and part­ners­hip roles cove­ring renewable feeds­tocks and che­mical recycling of plas­tics.

Sebas­tian König

Sebas­tian is the Sales Direc­tor Euro­pe at Air Liqui­de Engi­nee­ring & Con­struc­tion. Sebas­tian holds a Diplo­ma and a PhD in Elect­ric Ener­gy and High-Vol­ta­ge Tech­no­lo­gy. After finis­hing his PhD the­sis, he joi­ned HYDAC, as part of the e‑mobility and hydro­gen busi­ness deve­lop­ment team. He has held various senior posi­tions in HYDAC. Star­ting from 2020, Sebas­tian was res­pon­sible for the busi­ness deve­lop­ment regar­ding water elect­ro­ly­sis. In 2021, Sebas­tian joi­ned Air Liqui­de Glo­bal Engi­nee­ring & Con­struc­tion in Frank­furt, as Sales Direc­tor of Elect­ro­ly­sis and Power to X pro­jects. Begin­ning of 2025, Sebas­tian took over the ove­rall res­pon­si­bi­li­ty for the tech­no­lo­gy and equip­ment sales acti­vi­ties in Euro­pe.

Vee­ra Kiis­ki­nen

Vee­ra Kiis­ki­nen is lea­ding the pro­ject port­fo­lio of Green North Ener­gy, a com­pa­ny focusing on deve­lo­ping cut­ting-edge green ammo­nia pro­jects. The cur­rent focus is the success­ful rea­liza­tion of the flags­hip site in Naan­ta­li, whi­le simul­ta­neous­ly see­king new oppor­tu­ni­ties for sca­lable growth. As an example, the hap­pe­ning fea­si­bi­li­ty stu­dies of green ammo­nia pro­duc­tion in Kemi and Pori.

Vee­ra joi­ned Green North Ener­gy in the midd­le of 2024 and is a sea­so­ned lea­der in buil­ding ope­ra­ti­ve com­pe­tencies, dri­ving busi­ness trans­for­ma­tions and brid­ging the gap between busi­ness and finance.

Simo Säy­ne­vir­ta

Simo Säy­ne­vir­ta is Chair of Hydro­gen Clus­ter Fin­land, a coa­li­tion of over 100 com­pa­nies and industrial associa­tions. Hydro­gen Clus­ter Fin­land con­nects a mil­lion ways of hydro­gen to secu­re a free and industrious Euro­pe wit­hin a sus­tai­nable ener­gy and secu­ri­ty arc­hi­tec­tu­re.

Simo Säy­ne­vir­ta has an exten­si­ve career at ABB, having ser­ved in various glo­bal posi­tions in plat­form tech­no­lo­gy deve­lop­ment, pro­duct mana­ge­ment and R&D over 30 years. Today he is lea­ding ABB’s Green Elect­ri­fica­tion eco­sys­tem pro­gram, which deve­lops ABB’s plat­form tech­no­lo­gy for the opti­mum gene­ra­tion, trans­mis­sion and use of elect­rici­ty and part­ner applica­tions to decar­bo­nize industry, trans­por­ta­tion and built envi­ron­ment through green elect­ri­fica­tion.

Rei­ja Knuu­ti­la

Rei­ja Knuu­ti­la is an inno­va­ti­ve lea­der in the renewable ener­gy sec­tor, focusing on the deve­lop­ment of hydro­gen, wind, and solar power pro­jects, as well as advance­ments in elect­rical grid infra­struc­tu­re and renewable ener­gy deri­va­ti­ves. With a com­mit­ment to sus­tai­nable, forward-thin­king solu­tions, she has led nume­rous ini­tia­ti­ves that sup­port the growth and prac­tical applica­tion of clean ener­gy tech­no­lo­gies. Pas­sio­na­te about fos­te­ring col­la­bo­ra­tion and progress wit­hin the renewable ener­gy landsca­pe, Rei­ja com­bi­nes legal exper­ti­se with a dedica­tion to buil­ding a sus­tai­nable futu­re.

Jere­miah Dut­ton

Jere­miah Dut­ton, a clean­tech ent­repre­neur with over 20 years of expe­rience, is dedica­ted to decar­bo­nizing the Euro­pean ener­gy sec­tor through his work at InnoE­ner­gy. Com­mit­ted to sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty and inno­va­tion, Jere­miah brings a robust com­mercial background from lar­ge cor­po­ra­tes like GE Capi­tal and Sie­mens Wind Power and a pro­ven track record in growth and sca­ling with over a deca­de in the start-up space wor­king with sus­tai­nable plas­tics. With exten­si­ve expe­rience in busi­ness deve­lop­ment, renewables and clean­tech, Jere­miah is today dri­ving InnoEnergy’s latest industrial ven­tu­re CarbFlex – the lea­ding network that con­nects bio­ge­nic CO2 sources with CCUS pro­jects throug­hout Euro­pe and acce­le­ra­tes the ener­gy tran­si­tion.

Heli Virk­ki

Heli Virk­ki works as Head of Hydro­gen Val­ley Deve­lop­ment and Cus­to­mer Pro­jects at Gasgrid Vety­ver­kot Oy. Heli is res­pon­sible for regio­nal sta­ke­hol­der col­la­bo­ra­tion with munici­pa­li­ties as well as futu­re industrial cus­to­mers, sup­por­ting the ongoing deve­lop­ment of the Fin­nish natio­nal hydro­gen infra­struc­tu­re. Heli has over 20 years of expe­rience wit­hin buil­ding new value chains as well as lea­ding lar­ge con­sor­tia pro­jects wit­hin che­micals industry and ener­gy sec­tor.

Mira Lin­nan­maa

Mira Lin­na­maa is Com­mu­nica­tions and Public Affairs Direc­tor for Fin­land at Norwe­gian Air­li­nes, whe­re she is dedica­ted to strengt­he­ning Norwe­gians pre­sence and brand in the Fin­nish mar­ket. With over 12 years of expe­rience in cor­po­ra­te com­mu­nica­tions, inclu­ding roles at VR and Telia Fin­land, Mira has deve­lo­ped exper­ti­se in repu­ta­tion mana­ge­ment, exter­nal com­mu­nica­tions, and media rela­tions wit­hin the fast-paced B2C sec­tor. A pas­sio­na­te advoca­te for cor­po­ra­te sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty, she acti­ve­ly pro­mo­tes Norwegian’s ambi­tious sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty ini­tia­ti­ves, fos­te­ring dia­lo­gue on the futu­re of envi­ron­men­tal­ly conscious avia­tion. Mira’s com­mit­ment to inno­va­tion and impact­ful sto­ry­tel­ling posi­tions her as a key voice in sus­tai­nable busi­ness.

Erk­ka Saa­rio

Erk­ka is res­pon­sible for over­see­ing the deve­lop­ment of and invest­ments in lar­ge infra­struc­tu­re pro­jects at Gasgrid, inclu­ding NHR. Prior to focusing on hydro­gen infra­struc­tu­re, Erk­ka was deeply invol­ved in various renewable ener­gy pro­jects for around 20 years. He remains dedica­ted to sus­tai­nable ener­gy solu­tions, with a strong focus on hydro­gen and Fin­nish Renewables.

Vivi Mart­ti­la

Vivi Mart­ti­la is the may­or of Simo munici­pa­li­ty. We are very exci­tied about the agree­ment for a hydro­gen plant with eTeh­das in Simo. The stra­te­gy for Simo munici­pa­li­ty is to sup­port green ener­gy and we have great con­di­tions in the Sea Lapland. Simo munici­pa­li­ty has now (in plan­ning) 64 (90) wind tur­bi­nes , 280 MW wind power, 70 (220) MW solar power and 70 (100) MW bat­te­ry sto­ra­ge and the Simo­jo­ki power sta­tion. The­re is also a great amount offs­ho­re seawind power coming by Sky­born Renewables.

Sami Nis­si­nen

With over 18 years of lea­ders­hip expe­rience in the power plant and ener­gy industry, I have a pro­ven track record in dri­ving busi­ness growth through team mana­ge­ment, con­sul­ting sales, and end-to-end pro­ject execu­tion. My exper­ti­se spans engi­nee­ring design, procu­re­ment, bud­ge­ting, and pro­ject mana­ge­ment, with a focus on deli­ve­ring high-qua­li­ty results. I have success­ful­ly been complex Ener­gy field pro­jects in Fin­land and inter­na­tio­nal­ly, ensu­ring efficiency, inno­va­tion, and sus­tai­nable ener­gy solu­tions