People make the difference

Helena is a biomedical professional and holds a MSc in Biomaterials from Tampere University of Technology. She has several years of practical hands-on experience working in HealthTech start-ups mainly focusing on quality, product development and sales of medical devices and other health care products. In addition to SPARK, she works as an Innovation Specialist in Tampere University Innovation Services where she supports university researchers on their path of turning promising research results into successful commercial products.

Related to her role in SPARK activities, Helena is a manager of SPARK Finland in the Tampere region.

My is an internationally oriented business professional and holds an MSc in Management and International Business from Aalto University. She is specialized in strategy and sustainability. For several years, she has been working with the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Finland and around the world, and thus she has had possibilities to interact and collaborate with stakeholders from different backgrounds, industries, and cultures.

Her main responsibility at SPARK Finland is coordinating and developing the national Pre-SPARK Concept Discovery Program, as well as facilitating international collaboration with SPARK Finland members and SPARK Global communities. Based in the Helsinki capital region, My will also take part in the coordination of showcase events with the global SPARK network.

Janina has an academic background as a researcher and teacher at the University of Turku (Department of Biology, Physiology, and Genetics). She holds a PhD, and as a researcher, she focused on ecophysiology and biological aging. She is involved in several key programs and projects in the Turku region’s health and life science ecosystem. She serves as a Research Coordinator at the University of Turku (Faculty of Medicine) and an Innovation Coordinator at the Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland.

Related to her role in SPARK activities, Janina is a manager of SPARK Finland in the Turku region.

Irina has a business education and her main job is as a senior innovation advisor at the University of Eastern Finland Entrepreneurship and Innovation Services. She holds an MSc in Economic Sciences (management and organization) and has experience in project management and developing innovations towards their commercial potential. Inventions and technology transfer are some key elements of her work. In addition, as a part of her work, she is evaluating business ideas in the Draft Program which aims at supporting researchers to test their ideas with the help of small funding.

Related to her role in SPARK activities, Irina is a manager of SPARK Finland in the UEF ecosystem in the Kuopio and Joensuu regions.

Kirsti has her main job as the Executive Assistant for the Dean of Faculty of Medicine at the University of Helsinki. She has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and over ten years of experience in customer-related duties in various companies. She is a seasoned professional in sales and marketing, organizing events, and communicating with different audiences. That gives her an excellent background to join our program.

Kirsti supports SPARK Finland as the coordinator of the operations and communication. Kirsti will also take part in the coordination of showcase events with the European SPARK network.

Pasi is a globally acknowledged business and finance professional specialized in high-growth business and financing of the high-growth firms. He has wide experience in high-tech space, and in health tech his core competence areas are diagnostics and digital health. He has more than 25 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, business builder, consultant, early-stage financier, advisor, … and also (hopefully) finalizing his two business- and finance-related PhDs.

Pasi is a Founder and Director of our program. Alongside that, his duties are contributing to the European and global SPARK networks and supporting projects in building the market understanding and in business and finance aspects. Pasi is also appointed as a director of SPARK Europe, and chairman of the SPARK Global working group on “Innovation & Impact”.

Juho’s main job is the Head of Innovation Services at Tampere University. Juhowas also our previous manager in Tampere region and remarkable contributor int our European network. He is a seasoned biomedical technology professional with more than ten years of experience in managing commercialization of academic discoveries and projects at Tampere University and Tampere University of Technology.

He supports SPARK Finland as the co-coordinator of Tampere region activities with Helena.

Eriikka’s main work is a Chief Innovation Specialist at Turku University Hospital and Executive Director at Health Campus Turku. She has a strong clinical background, having been a nurse for 10 years at Helsinki University Hospital. After that, she went to University of Turku and received her MSc in nursing sciences and PhD in January 2021. She was for years one of the key people in building SPARK Finland’s educational program.

Eriikka supports SPARK Finland in our educational activities.

Sebastian is a business development professional specialized in pharma and diagnostic industry. He holds MSc in Drug Discovery and Development (University of Turku) and MSc in Business Administration & Bioentrepreneurship (Copenhagen Business School). He has years of experience in early stage product and business development, and commercialization activities in academia and early stage companies. His main business is at Polku Therapeutics Oy as Co-Founder and Director of Operations.

Sebastian supports SPARK program in commercial aspects of pharma and diagnostic projects and in our educational program.

Antti is a molecular biologist by training and has strong scientific background in vascular biology. He has also wide experience in project management and developing academic discoveries towards the commercial potential. He has worked in several roles in the Kuopio region development ecosystem. Alongside with SPARK manager role he has worked as an innovation advisor at Neurocenter Finland.

His core responsibilities at SPARK Finland were in validation studies and commercial aspects of the projects, and coordination of SPARK activities in Kuopio and Joensuu regions. Currently he has two professional roles; he works at Savonia University of Applied Sciences as RDI Advisor and alongside with that he is a founder of a SPARK alumni startup Sonai Health.

Juuso is a cardiologist by training and brings a wide spectrum of competencies on drug development from pre-clinical through phases I-IV, clinical research, regulatory issues, companion diagnostics and eHealth. Whilst continuing his clinical engagement in cardiology, his former assignments include Director Physician role at AstraZeneca R&D (Gothenburg, Sweden) and research physician at The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, Australia. Currently he is a CEO and co-founder of a health tech startup Precordior Ltd.

Juuso support SPARK projects in the fields of medical expertise, regulatory aspects and clinical trials.