Lauri is a scientist turned investor. He is one of the founders of Nordic Foodtech VC. the first investment fund focused explicitly on deep foodtech in the Nordics. Lauri holds a PhD in biotechnology and is an expert in cell culture technology and protein production. As a manager of Nordic Foodtech VC, his day-to-day work with scientist, new technology, food industry and startups gives him a deep perspective to the future of food. Lauri is passionate about building a radically more sustainable and healthy food system for this planet – and the next one.
KEYNOTE: Nature value and carbon compensation markets as a business opportunity
Juha Hakkarainen is the Managing Director of Finsilva, overseeing over 135,000 hectares of certified Finnish forests. Also, he leads Davvi Metsä Oy, managing nearly 40,000 hectares of northern Finnish forests.
Juha has played a key role in developing international cooperation in forestry entrepreneurship and ownership. He has extensive experience in practical forestry, advocacy, and ensuring the operational conditions of the forestry sector both domestically and internationally. As a forest economist, he has expertise in investment, including forest investments within the pension system. Juha has a strong and diverse track record in forestry management, emphasizing the importance of natural capital in responsible economic development.
KEYNOTE: EIP-AGRI Operational Groups – Co-creating practical solutions for agriculture, forestry and rural communities
Margarida Ambar is one of the Knowledge and Innovation officers at the EU CAP Network Support Unit for Innovation and Knowledge exchange | EIP-AGRI, and is the Head of the Division dealing with AKIS and stakeholders management. She has been working with EIP-AGRI since 2013.
Margarida Ambar studied agricultural engineering at the Technical University of Lisbon and has a master’s degree in territorial management, focusing on stakeholders’ involvement.
KEYNOTE: New, emerging technologies and precision farming as a part of the rapidly changing operating environment of the agricultural farming in Finland
Samu has a combined knowledge and expertise of technology, business and agriculture. Grown up working at the family farm, Samu has over 20 years of practical experience of agriculture. Samu holds a Master’s Degree in Technology and has also studied economics, which provides him a broad perspective on the development of agricultural technology and business. Having been founding Hankkija’s Smart Farming team, Samu is involved daily with novel precision farming solutions, industry stakeholders and the ever-changing agricultural operating environment.
KEYNOTE: SeAMK Food Labs – Advancing Sustainable Food Production Through Technology
Matti has a background in beverage industry R&D and quality management. In his current role, a key highlight is helping companies in the industry pilot sustainable plant-based (protein) products using new technologies.
KEYNOTE: How to succeed in agtech innovation – Learning points from Sweden
Climate change causing drought and extreme weather are among the megatrends that lead to huge pressure on the agricultural sector. This calls for mission-oriented innovation, but the question is how to make that happen in practice! In about 6 years, more than 80 innovation projects have been initiated by the platform Agtech Sweden. Together, about 100 companies have been involved in these projects. Some innovation projects had more success than others, but all of them provided lessons learned. In this speech, we share our experiences with barriers to innovation and success factors. We focus on co-innovation, meaning working on innovation processes together in multi-organization constellations. We will finally present a draft of a management model for innovation promotion.
KEYNOTE: Spaceborne insights for climate resilient agriculture and food security
Patrick works as a remote sensing specialist at Kuva Space. He has a background in ecology and environmental biology, with a specialization in environmental degradation and land use change. At Kuva Space, he plans and executes field campaigns for in-situ data collection for data calibration and validation activities at Kuva Space. Data acquisition is done through a combination of handheld and airborne spectrometers, either through the use of UAVs or helicopters. In addition, Patrick is part of a team building the AI models for insights solutions, both internal and external, as well as serving as an advisor for the development of agriculture analytics development at Kuva Space.
KEYNOTE: EIT Food - accelerating innovation in the agrifood sector
Susanah has over 20 years of international business experience. She has a strong focus on innovation and collaboration within the food sector, particularly in areas such as urban food systems, with an emphasis on circular economy and AI. Susanah believes in developing innovation ecosystems and industry clusters and promoting systems thinking, to foster co-creation and open innovation. At EIT Food, she is dedicated to strengthening partnerships and the community and practical initiatives that result in responsible and conscientious transformations of food systems. Her professional passion is to create meaningful contributions to the food sector that are environmentally friendly, principled, and sincere. Susanah believes that a healthy planet must come first, advocating for the consumption of less, but better-quality food!
Malgorzata is currently leading initiatives focusing on startup support and innovation in the agrifood sector, managing EIT Food Test Farms programme in North-East and Nordic regions.
KEYNOTE: Future clean power sources and fuels for agriculture machinery
The keynote by Jarno Ratia, Director, Sales & Marketing and Emission Compliance at AGCO Power Oy:
Jarno has previous experience in engine performance and exhaust aftertreatment technology developments and global engine product management from AGCO Power. Jarno holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) from Energy engineering at Turku University of applied sciences.
KEYNOTE: Machine 360 data - Understanding customer's journey with Valtra machine and creating Farmer First business value
Mika has a background in IT and digital marketing working in B2B sector. Originally Mika worked with Valtra's marketing team as external consultant, but got professionally charmed by the brand and joined the "Valtra Tribe". His current role in data-driven business development is to make sure that business-critical data is available to all stakeholders and utilized efficiently throughout the organization leading to improved processes and Farmer First digital features.
Mika is a true believer in team-up efforts, and networking events such as AgriVenture offer huge potential to release out-of-the-box ideas for the benefit of farmers and more sustainable farming.
