Tourism events

Nina Vesterinen, Tourism Director, City of Helsinki

Nina Vesterinen has worked as the Tourism Director of the City of Helsinki for 3.5 years and leads the Tourism and Destination Management Unit. She has extensive and diverse experience in tourism expert and managerial positions in the fields of business, regional organization, education, research, consulting and administration. She has also studied and worked abroad for several years. She has degrees in business, tourism and education. Sustainable tourism, which she once wrote her final thesis on, and knowledge-based management, are close to her heart. She has written textbooks, workbooks and articles in the field. Nina lives and breathes tourism #ForTheLoveForHelsinki also in her free time, in addition to a variety of sports and music activities. She also works as a mentor for those starting their careers and as a support person for exchange students.

Turkka Kuusisto, CEO, Finnair

Turkka Kuusisto started as the CEO of Finnair on 24 April 2024. He is a driven, modern leader with a proven track record of leading successful cultural and business transformations for a more sustainable future for large organisations. Before Finnair, Turkka Kuusisto was CEO of Posti Group and led the company’s transformation into a modern distribution company with improved profitability. Before that, he held key management positions at Posti Group and Lindorff Group. Kuusisto has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Ilmarinen since 2011, and a member of the Board of Directors of PALTA, the service sector employers’ association, since 2020.

Charly Salonius-Pasternak, CEO, Nordic West Office

Charly's work focuses on international security issues, with a focus on Nordic and transatlantic security (including NATO) and US foreign and defense policy. His research focuses on the impact of technology on society and warfare, hybrid threats and conflicts, information influence and communication, crisis management and peacekeeping, and global geopolitical and geoeconomic trends. Charly has been a visiting scholar at the Changing Character of War Centre at Pembroke College (University of Oxford), where he studied the impact of the information age on the nature of warfare. He has also been an exchange fellow at the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland and as an international affairs assistant to the senior leadership of the Finnish Defence Forces.

Jens Mathiesen, President & CEO, Scandic Hotels Group

Jens Mathiesen is the President & CEO of Scandic Hotels, the largest hotel company in the Nordic countries. The company has 280 hotels, in operation and under development, in more than 130 destinations in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland Germany and Poland. Scandic is a leader when it comes to integrating sustainability in all operations and its award-winning Design for All concept ensures that Scandic hotels are accessible to everyone. Well loved by guests and employees, the Scandic Friends loyalty program is the largest in the Nordic hotel industry and the company is one of the most attractive employers in the region. Scandic Hotels is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. 

Anni Vepsäläinen, CEO, Finnish Fair Corporation

Anni Vepsäläinen has been the CEO of Finnish Fair Corporation since 2014. Before that, she worked as CEO at Diacor Health Services and TeliaSonera Finland, among others. In addition to her work as CEO, Anni holds numerous positions of trust, such as on the boards of Cinia and Martela, and does voluntary work at the War and Peace Centre Muisti and the Women's Bank. She holds a Master of Science in Engineering. In addition to the Finnish Fair Corporation, the Finnish Fair Group also includes the exhibition organiser Expomark Oy and the audiovisual technology company SVV Oy. The Group's turnover in 2024 was EUR 58.4 million, the income impact on the environment was EUR 245 million and the employment impact was 3,335 person-years.

Niko Karstikko, CEO and Co-founder, Bob W.

Niko Karstikko is a Finnish tech entrepreneur reinventing the hospitality industry as Co-founder and CEO of Bob W. Bob W is a tech company operating in hospitality and the first international climate-neutral hospitality provider. Under Karstikko’s leadership, Bob W has raised over €70M in funding, and outperformed hotels and competition, whilst expanding to 10 countries and 18+ cities across Europe operating over 45 tech-powered aparthotels to-date. Bob W is Europe’s fastest growing hospitality operator today. In addition to previously being the founder and CEO of VC-backed multinational consumer tech startup SportSetter (exit in 2016), Karstikko is also an experienced hospitality entrepreneur and occasional angel investor with a Bachelor degree in International Business and Finance from the University of South Carolina.

Joonas Nurmi, CCO & Co-Founder, Aerocom Aviation Oy

Joonas Nurmi is the co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of the airline Aerocom Aviation Oy. Aerocom Aviation focuses on providing high-quality air transport services with modern jets and helicopters in Europe under its brands Helsinki Citycopter and ACXJET. In addition, Aerocom Aviation launched the new ACX ACCESS brand in January 2025 as the first Nordic partner of the Golden Globes awards gala. ACX ACCESS operates as a luxury tour operator in both inbound and outbound tourism globally.

Soila Lehkonen, Head of Brand and PR, Helsinki Partners
Soila Lehkonen leads the brand and PR team at Helsinki Partners, which focuses on promoting the city's attractiveness to international tourists and experts. Before joining Helsinki Partners, Soila has worked in leadership positions in brand building and marketing communications with both well-known and emerging Finnish and international companies at the consultancy Miltton.

Kristiina Hietasaari, Senior Director, Visit Finland
Kristiina Hietasaari has been the Senior Director of the Visit Finland Unit of Business Finland Oy, responsible for tourism promotion, since 2021. She has worked in tourism since 2010, when Hietasaari started as the Director of Research and Development at the Finnish Tourism Promotion Centre. Before the tourism industry, she held management positions in media and marketing communications, responsible for customer relationships for both Finnish and international consumer brands. Hietasaari holds a Master of Science in Economics. Visit Finland's mission and goal is to support the success of the Finnish tourism industry by creating an image of Finland as a desirable travel destination internationally.

Frank Cuypers, Founder, Place Generation
Frank Cuypers founded Place Generation in 2023 to promote the regeneration of places through the positive effects of tourism. Frank is a thought leader in place branding and marketing. For the past eight years, he has been with the Canadian company Destination Think. Frank has detailed expertise in place management and marketing globally. For five years, he was an advisor to the city of Antwerp in Belgium, focusing on urban marketing, cultural policy and tourism. Before that, he worked as a change management consultant for the French company Möbius. Frank is collaborating with CityDNA and Simpleview on the VivaCITY project, which Helsinki won together with Turin. Frank has also founded Toponaut, a company focused on the science of places and especially cities, his main research area.

Pia Lange Christensen, CEO, Visit Århus
Pia Lange Christensen has been the CEO of VisitAarhus since 2019. Since then, she has been leading Denmark’s largest DMO outside the capital. VisitAarhus is responsible for marketing and developing tourism in the Aarhus Region. In addition to her role as CEO, Pia Lange Christensen holds several board positions – she is a board member of VisitDenmark, Chairman of MeetDenmark (The Danish development organisation for business tourism), and a board member of Danske Destinationer (Danish Destinations) and Dansk Storbyturisme (Danish City Tourism). Besides her degree in journalism, Pia Lange Christensen also has a diploma in management from Aarhus University and a board education from Copenhagen Business School.
 

Jesse Marttila, CEO, Natura Viva
Jesse Marttila is the CEO of Natura Viva, or more accurately, the skipper. In his work as the skipper of Natura Viva, Jesse takes care of the company's finances, partnerships, personnel, development, safety and marketing. Besides paper-pushing, if he's lucky, Jesse gets to be a guide on trips to the archipelago, lead a mountain biking course or go to a wilderness cabin to chop some wood.

Jukka-Pekka Ujula, City Manager, City of Helsinki
Jukka-Pekka Ujula has served as City Manager of the City of Helsinki since December 2023. He is the highest-ranking official in the city corporation and holds degrees both from economics and political science.

Ed Gillespie, serial entrepreneur, writer and futurist

Ed Gillespie is a keynote speaker, writer, communications specialist, serial entrepreneur and futurist. He is the author of ‘Only Planet – a flight-free adventure around the world’ a book about his circumnavigation of the globe without getting on a plane. Professionally Ed is known for his own unique brand of authentic ‘insultancy’ – being strategically and playfully cheeky to clients, with judicious wit and wisdom to inspire them to greater heights and aspirations. Ed is Chief Futurist at the Global Destination Sustainability Forum, a facilitator with the Forward Institute for responsible leadership, a former Director of Greenpeace UK, a Trustee of Onboard:Earth, and a founder investor and former Chair of pioneering online rail ticketing business ‘Loco2’ now rebranded as Rail Europe.