Think Tank

Jaap has worked for about 10 years as Board Secretary and Senior Project Manager of the “Bureau Innovation Research & Development” of the Foundation STC Group. He was also the Daily Secretary of the European Association EDINNA (Education in Inland Navigation). Jaap holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Logistics and Economics of the University of Applied Sciences (HES) in Rotterdam and a Master’s Degree in Shipping and Transport of the Netherlands Maritime University. Currently, Jaap is the Director for Research and Innovation Affairs at SEA Europe, the Association representing the European shipbuilding and maritime equipment suppliers and manufacturers. Besides, Jaap is the executive-director of the Waterborne Technology Platform, the Research and Innovation engine for the waterborne sector towards the European institutions.

Patrik Rautaheimo has an M.Sc. degree in Technical Physics and a Dr. Tech. degree in Applied Thermodynamics. From 1994 to 2000, he worked at the Helsinki University of Technology in the fields of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) and turbulence modelling. He worked at Aker Yards Finland and Germany from 2000 to 2013. He held different positions and from 2008 he was Vice President, Design & Engineering at the Turku Shipyard. From 2013, he joined Elomatic and from 2016 he has been CEO of Elomatic. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Finnish Marine Industries Association as well as a board member of software companies Napa Oy and Cadmatic Oy.

Chairman of the Board, Port of Loviisa 2018 –
Chairman of the Board, South Finland Port Services 2018 – Board member of Finnish Port Association 2018 –
Board member of Baltic Ports Organisation 2018 –

Prior to his current position Mr. Haapasaari has worked at Finavia as the SVP, Helsinki Airport Director 2012-2018. Previously he worked in various responsibilities at Finnlines, main emphasis being on the head of business positions and sales management.
His main competences are business management, logistics know-how, managing development projects and working in customer interface both in b-b and b-c business environment.

Mikki Koskinen (MSc Econ., Logistics) has been Managing Director of ESL Shipping Ltd (Part of Aspo Plc) since 2013 and is also member of Aspo Group Executive Committee. ESL Shipping Ltd and it’s Swedish subsidiary AtoB@C Shipping AB are together the leading carrier of dry bulk cargo in the Baltic Sea. Current fleet consists of 51 highly ice classed vessels totalling 469.000 dwt, carrying 16-17 million tons of cargo annually. Mikki is the Vice Chairman at Finnish Shipowners’ Association and Member of the Board at International Chamber of Shipping, London (ICS) and Member of the Board at Finnish Waterways Association.

As a graduated computer scientist with more than 25 years of experience in the field of port, logistics, IT and finance, Jens Meier is an internationally recognized thought leader and a much sought-after speaker with broad media presence in the area of digitalization and the future of maritime industries. He has been serving as CEO of Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) since 2008. His previous professional positions include board positions at Fiege Holding, tts Group, Systematics AG (later EDS) and Software Design & Management AG (Ernst & Young Group). In May 2019 Jens Meier was elected vice president of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH).

Jens Meier’s voluntary social commitments include positions as founding board member of the Hamburg Informatics Forum e.V., several mandates on supervisory boards and boards of trustees as well as his position as president of Hamburger Sport Verein e.V. from 2013 to 2018.

Martin Dorsman has been the Secretary General of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations since the 1^stof November 2017. From June 2011 to the date of his appointment as Secretary General he had been the managing director of the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners (KVNR). From September 2006 to June 2011 he had been the KVNR’s deputy managing director.

Before joining the KVNR he had been employed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and as such had been working on macro-economic policy, regional economic policy and R&D-policy. In 1999 he joined the ministry of Transport, where he was responsible for fiscal maritime policy and other maritime policies. The latter two years of his employment at the ministry of Transport he was head of unit for the team responsible for the Betuwe freight rail track, the dedicated rail track from the port of Rotterdam to Germany.

As  a Master Mariner, a former ABB Marine & Ports Head of Design House and a member of ABS and Lloyd’s Register technical committees, Eero Lehtovaara has a comprehensive understanding of the challenges new regulations, technologies and staffing models pose for maritime stakeholders. Focusing on the relationship between technological advance and regulation, Eero has gained specific insights into the significance of digitalisation, ´smart´ ship management and autonomous ship operations.

Eero is an Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute and is ABB’s delegate at the Global Environment Facility-United Nations Development Program-International Maritime Organization alliance. He isa board member of DIMECC, which provides governance for the One Sea Alliance and chairs the CIMAC working group on azimuthing propulsion standards. Eero also represents ABB in the board of Sea Europe and the DNVGL Nordic safety committee.

Together with Dr. Kalevi Tervo they published the white paper about the B0 (Bridge Zero) concept.

Karno has been in the maritime industry all his working career. He created the smart & autonomous shipping business for Rolls-Royce Marine. He holds a double masters degree in automation engineering and international business. He has a background as an entrepreneur and founder, SVP and P&L owner of Rolls-Royce Ship Intelligence business. Currently, he is the CEO and Founder of Awake.AI, a company that aims to revolutionize the ports & shipping industry and enable autonomous shipping.

Jari Heiskanen is the founder and CEO of a Finnish software company,

Aava Software. Jari has developed a new kind of business software platform, Aava, that has been used to implement various ERP and MES solutions for different industries. During past few years he has been working mostly on marine solutions where he has developed VesselERP – a solution for managing cargo vessel operational data. VesselERP is complete digitalization platform for shipping companies where the fleet management is done from the business point of view. It takes a revolutionary approach on managing vessel operations enabling the shipping company to achieve major cost savings and significantly reduce emissions.

Andersson is Secretary General at Finnish Marine Industries and MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management. She promotes the marine technology sector nationally and internationally at organizations such as SEA Europe. She is also a member of the key steering groups of the branch. Finnish Marine Industries is a co-operation forum for high-technology maritime solution providers, leading marine equipment manufacturers, turn-key suppliers, designers, software and system providers as well as shipbuilding, ship repair and offshore yards. The association is a branch association of Technology Industries of Finland.

Rikard is CEO of the Swedish Shipowners Association since 2017 an organization he has been with since 2016. The association is highly involved in developing a more sustainable shipping sector. From a competitive, environmental and a social perspective. Rikard is passionate about transport efficiency and how to help out in developing the sustainable society.
Rikard has a background as a researcher in freight transports and logistics and has been a chief strategist at the Swedish Transport Administration for many years. Rikard describe himself as a walking triple helix model given his background combining academia, industry and administration.

Ulla Tapaninen, Adjunct Professor (maritime economics and logistics), PhD, has over 25 years’ experience in logistics and maritime transport.
Currently Ulla Tapaninen works as Head of Unit for City of Helsinki in charge of enterprise services.  She is also in charge of Helsinki City maritime cluster development. City of Helsinki is the largest maritime cluster city in Finland. The focus areas of Helsinki maritime cluster programme are startups, digitalization and eco-technological solutions.
She have worked in key positions in two Finnish shipping companies: a development and environmental manager in Finncarries Oy Ab and member of board of ESL Shipping. ESL Shipping’s climate-smart newbuildings Viikki and Haaga have just received a best five-star environmental rating from Clean Shipping Index (CSI).
Dr. Tapaninen had a post as a professor of maritime logistics in the University of Turku. In 2013 Dr. Tapaninen published a Finnish textbook Maritime Logistics presenting the fundamentals of maritime business. There comes new editions in 2019 both in Finnish and English.

Wilhelmsen and Kongsberg have joined forces to take the next step in autonomous shipping. These two strong and innovative companies each own 50% of Massterly, which started operations in 2018.

Massterly will enable a shift in transport from road to sea; through cost-effective, safe and environmentally friendly logistics. The company offers services for the entire value chain for zero/low emission, autonomous ships; from vessel design and approval from relevant authorities, to control systems, logistics services, vessel operations, insurance and financing.

Pia holds an MBA and has broad management experience from shipping and the maritime industry; both within chartering and commercial management of vessels at the leading dry bulk operator Klaveness, as the General Manager of Nav/Com service provider Radio Holland, the Marketing & Communications Manager for scrubber manufacturer Clean Marine and as Area Sales Director for Marine Products in Wilhelmsen Ships Service.

Pia is also the President of WISTA (Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association) Norway. WISTA promotes diversity and empower women to lead, with the conviction that this is key in providing a sustainable future for the shipping industry internationally.

Mr. Emanuele Grimaldi was born in Naples (Italy) in 1956 and, after finishing the military high school of “Nunziatella”, he studied at the University of Naples obtaining the Degree in Economics and Commerce with “summa cum laude” in December 1980. He is married and has 2 sons and 1 daughter.

In 2018 he was awarded as Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland

After his studies he immediately started working at the Grimaldi Group’s companies, founded by his father Guido and uncles in the late 40’s. Throughout his professional career, he has covered various top managerial positions, both in Italy and abroad.

Within the Group’s organigram, Emanuele Grimaldi has gradually taken the helm of the Euro-Mediterranean short sea services and motorways of the sea network, thus heavily contributing to their remarkable development over the last 20 years.

Emanuele Grimaldi is currently President & Managing DirectorofGrimaldi Euromed SpA, Managing Director of Grimaldi Group SpA and Board Member of Grimaldi Deepsea SpA, President and CEO of Finnlines Plc, President of Minoan Lines and Malta Motorways of the Sea and Board Member of ACL.

He is also Past President of Confitarma (Italian Shipowners’ Association) as well as Board Member and Past President of ECSA  (European Community Shipowners’ Associations), Vice Chairmen of ICS (International Chamber of Shipping), Board Member of Interferry Inc. and Board Member of Rina SpA.

Mikael Mäkinen works as President, Marine at Rolls-Royce Plc since 2014. He is a member of the Rolls-Royce Executive Team. Prior to this, Mäkinen was President of MacGregor during 2012–2014 and President and CEO of Cargotec Corporation during 2006–2012. He held several positions within Wärtsilä Group between 1982–2006.

Dr Andreia Thiel is heading the Corporate Strategy department of the HPA-Hamburg Port Authority with expertise in the management of project-based international cooperation and port business development. Before her appointment for the HPA, Dr. Thiel worked as a consultant for the HPC-Hamburg Port Consulting in large international port and logistics projects. Prior to the business sector, she also worked in the academic environment as a Senior Economist at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) on topics related to labor economics, migration and quantitative data analysis.
Dr. Andreia Thiel studied International Relations and Economics in Bucharest (University of Economic Studies, Romania) and Berlin (Humboldt University). She also holds Master degree in European Studies from the College of Europe Hamburg and a PhD in macroeconomics from the Hamburg University.