Senior Advisors

Will Cardwell is Lecturer and New Projects Lead at the Aalto Ventures Program, Aalto University. His expertise includes above all venturing and venture capital. Will Cardwell has spent over 15 years in the Finnish high­tech environment as a CEO of a startup, venture capitalist, CEO of Technopolis Ventures, investment banker, researcher and lecturer. He has been on the board of 15 Finnish companies. He has been in charge of coordinating Aalto University’s strategic university partnerships and co-founded the Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship.

Päivi Castrén has over 30 years of extensive experience in human resources management and organizational development with global organizations such as Wärtsilä, Nokia Plc and Valmet Paper Machinery. She is a Master of Social Sciences in psychology from the University of Helsinki.

Domenico Dargenio has 20+ years of international experience including C-level positions, with a track record in leading teams and organizations to high performance. He has led multiple transformations covering Leadership & Culture, Digital Transformation, Strategy, Operational Excellence.

Max Finne is an Assistant Professor of Information and Service Management at Aalto University School of Business. Prior to joining Aalto in 2018, Max was Associate Professor of Operations Management at Warwick Business School, Coventry, UK. He received his PhD in 2014 from Aalto University. Currently, he teaches courses on Operations and Process Management for BSc programs and delivers a number of executive education programs at Aalto EE. He has been involved in a number of research projects building on strong collaboration with industrial partners. His current research interests are mostly focused within service operations management and innovative pedagogies. Examples of particular topics that Finne is working on are servitization, Industry 4.0, service network management, professional service operations, inter-organizational collaboration, learning analytics and flipped learning pedagogies.

Nermin Hairedin is a digital, data, and marketing professional. She has an extensive background in digitalizing businesses for over 20 years.

Tarja Kallonen is an expert in anticipating the future training needs of the financial sector, lobbying, and cooperation with financial corporations and various labor market operators. Kallonen has previously acted as Head of Financial Work and Competence at Finance Finland (FFI). She is a Master of Social Sciences from University of Jyväskylä.

Pia Lappalainen is a Doctor of Science (Technology). Her areas of expertise are productivity, performance assessment, human resource management, managerial communication, occupational wellbeing, and conflict resolution and management. She is also an experienced management coach and facilitator.

Ben Nothnagel is an expert in self-development and applied neuro-science and has been a member of Aalto EE’s faculty for many years. His concepts of applied neuro-science have also been incorporated into the leadership development programs of many global corporations. Nothnagel is an Attorney at Law, as well as an MBTI Certified Interpreter, Certified Emotional Intelligence practitioner, Certified SDI Conflict Management practitioner, and a Big Five Personality assessor. He has extensive consulting experience from working with companies such as Daimler, Nordea, Finnair, Michelin, GE, HP, Yahoo, Vaisala, Cargotec, and Danfoss to name a few.

Tarja Ollilainen is a certified coach and instructor. She has extensive experience in executive positions in the finance industry (Pohjola Group, Danske Securities, and SEB, to name a few). She is a Master of Science in Economics from Aalto University.

Dr. Mika Pantzar is a Research Professor at the National Consumer Research Center. His field of research is diverse and his expertise includes e.g. futurology and research of consumption and technology. In 1996 Pantzar received the State Award for Public Information and in 2010 his business publication was the most read book in the category.

Paula Salonen, Master of Laws, has a long career in top management positions in the financial sector, especially at Sampo Group and IF. Most recently, she served as the Director of Finva in 2019-2021. She has strong training and coaching expertise as well as extensive experience working as a board professional in the finance and insurance industry. Currently, Salonen is also a Member of the Board of Mandatum Life.

Dr. Fabian Sepulveda is a Senior Advisor at Aalto EE.

Mika Videman has extensive experience and versatile expertise in global corporations and start-up companies. He has worked in areas such as sales, marketing, and partnership development. In addition, he has extensive experience in HR management at Fazer Group and Nokia Corporation. He has a Master of Science degree from Aalto University.