Hats off to our promoted colleagues

September started by celebrating our inspirational colleagues. Warmest congratulations to our colleagues for their well-deserved promotions.

In the main photo from left to right: Eerika Ala-Kantti, Rohit Sood, Renuka Natarajan, Anu Ilmonen, Franklin Nguyen, Maarit Liimatta, and Hilla Pohjalainen. 

Our tradition is to celebrate successes and now is the time to raise our glasses to our newly promoted colleagues who have helped us develop our business, succeed, and grow.

Digital Industries business unit

Aino Heiska (MSc. Econ.) is promoted to Senior Consultant. Aino has brought to Spinverse invaluable skills which she is successfully practicing with both the former Industryhack clients as well as with the Spinverse clients. Working with Aino is always a pleasure, her strategic thinking sets the right priorities for the work, and she is quick in delivering and taking customer processes forward. Her toolbox includes plenty of methods and techniques, which she savvily applies e.g. to lead use case creation, innovation challenges and concepting.

Jayden Khakurel (D.Sc. Tech, MBA) is promoted to Senior Project Manager. Jayden has managed multiple complex health projects and provided guidance and contributed to several winning projects such as Long Covid. In addition, Jayden is consulting the project coordination and technical coordination for a complex AICCELERATE H2020 project.  Jayden has a way of empowering and motivating his colleagues. He is also quick to volunteer for additional responsibilities. He solves complex problems in unique and innovative ways and is excellent with customers. Jayden has proven to handle the full cycle of our healthcare business from sales to delivery.

Renuka Natarajan (Ph. D. Neuroimmunology) is promoted to Consultant. She has a deep understanding of several healthcare topics such as communicable and noncommunicable diseases. Renuka is a fast learner and highly interested in contributing to our healthcare business by supporting the team with sales activities. Renuka has already contributed to several winning projects, such as Long Covid. She is able to work independently in developing an idea or consortium for project partners. She is also creative in a way where she can propose alternative ways to achieving results.

Hilla Pohjalainen (M.Sc., Tech.) is promoted to Consultant. Hilla has several years of experience in proposal preparation and project coordination in our ECSEL projects, such as Europat-MASiP, Energy ECS, APPLAUSE etc. In particular, she has extensive knowledge in the dissemination of EU projects and keeps developing it further. Hilla is our main expert in anything related to audio technologies. Hilla works very well independently, takes initiative, and is always committed to step in and offer a helping hand to colleagues.

Rohit Sood (Ph.D. Chem., MBA) has been promoted to Director, Health Tech. He continues as a Team Leader for our Healthcare business. Ever since Rohit was nominated to take over the business leadership in spring 2021, he has demonstrated strong dedication to his team, to his customers and his colleagues – all being reflected in the excellent results that he has generated. At the same time, he continues to offer his expertise to other teams in times of great need.

Sustainable Industries business unit

Sonja Auvinen (M.Sc. Tech.) is promoted to Senior Project Manager. Sonja has been managing various large and complex funding proposals preparations from Innovation Funds to Horizon Clean Hydrogen calls to Veturi projects, to mention just a few examples. She has taken on customer relations responsibilities as a Key Account Manager for one of Spinverse’s largest clients and has been proactive in many sales cases. Sonja is very competent in leading and creating new consortiums with her constructive and determined approach that our customers appreciate in their positive feedback.

Anu Ilmonen (M.Sc. Tech.) is promoted to Director and continues as a Team Lead, with target to grow Spinverse business in the Defence sector. Anu has led Spinverse’s entrance to the sector by successfully closing first sales and leading first projects. She has also led the creation and start-up of a new team. Customer feedback from the completed projects has been overwhelmingly positive and enables Spinverse to continue growth in the sector.

Minna Lahtinen (M.Sc. Chem.) is promoted to Project Manager. Minna has continuously taken on new responsibilities and bravely jumped into the project manager’s role for different types of projects, such as Borealis SPIRIT Veturi programme. It is effortless and a pleasure to work with Minna. She is great at ensuring that both our internal and customer teams handle and discuss the right things at the right time. In her new role she will no doubt be in a significant and valuable role in running and contributing to our projects, both small and complex.

Marketing

Eerika Ala-Kantti (M.Sc. Econ.) is promoted to Senior Marketing Manager. Eerika has worked diligently to support both our Business Units with sales and customer acquisition, as well as our HR in talent attraction. She has also tirelessly helped us all with our presentations and visual needs. In her new role Eerika will focus on our brand building, telling our growth story to our respective stakeholders, our integration with IMCG and increasing our exposure to the Swedish market.

Maarit Liimatta (M.A., MTi) is promoted to Communications Manager. Maarit has become a vital contributor to telling our stories — and those of our customers in a number of projects in bioeconomy, health sector and circular economy for instance. She can take any case, customer, or individual and make the story clear and inspiring. In her new role Maarit will focus on telling the stories on the impact of our work as a company and how our colleagues contribute to our success.

Franklin Nguyen (B.Sc. BA) Franklin is promoted to Business Development Specialist. Franklin started off working with Spinbase as a digital marketing specialist. Since the business lead position became open, she fearlessly took on tasks also related to sales, business development and product ownership. Franklin has performed well in this new role and seeks to continuously learn and develop. Franklin will no doubt play a role in our digital journey moving forward.

A big collective Thank You to all of you — keep up the great work!