Speaker´s profile

Fostering
green growth
SPEAKER’S PROFILES
Simon Baagøe Andersen
Eirik Bergesen
Vidar Helgesen
Kaisa Hernberg
Janica Johansson
Idar Kreutzer
Alexander Lidgren
Project Manager (Denmark)
Journalist (Norway)
Minister of the Environment
in Norway
Cleantech Investor, Afabla (Finland)
Zen Robotics (Finland)
Norwegian expert commission on green
competitiveness
CEO, Finance Norway
CEO, Cleantech Invest (Sweden)
Simon Baagøe Andersen has a background
in Innovation and Business Development,
and has focused on clusters as a way of
facilitating innovation between public
and private actors. He has gained international experience from living and working
in Shanghai and have worked on developing sustainable cities through the BeijingCopenhagen Urban Challenge.
Eirik Bergesen is a Norwegian writer and
journalist. He has previously worked ten
years as a diplomat, serving at the Embassy in Washington, the EU Delegation and
the Foreign Minister’s Secretariat.
Vidar Helgesen was born in Bodø in the
County of Nordland on 21 November 1968,
and grew up at Nøtterøy in the County of
Vestfold. Helgesen holds the Cand. Jur. Degree from the University of Oslo in 1998.
He has recently worked on environmental
issues with the Scandinavian climate and
health initiative EAT.
Helgesen was state secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2001-2005, under Kjell
Magne Bondevik’s Second Government.
Kaisa Hernberg is an entrepreneur and
angel investor focusing on cleantech
companies. Ms Hernberg has worked on
commercialisation of information technology solutions and professional services
for nearly two decades and has served as
director at the Cleantech Finland program
at Finpro.
Janica Johansson is a Cleantech enthusiast
at heart, and dedicated to promoting wider uptake of clean technologies and more
sustainable business practices. Before joining ZenRobotics, she promoted the Finnish
cleantech industry globally as Marketing
Manager in Cleantech Finland. Idar Kreutzer is CEO of Finance Norway.
From 2000 to 2012 he was the CEO of
Storebrand ASA. Kreutzer is the Chairman of the Board of Norway Post and the
Norwegian Refugee Council. He is Deputy
Chairman of the Corporate Assembly of
Statoil AS and a member of the Corporate
Assembly of Norsk Hydro ASA. In June
2015 Kreutzer was appointed member of
The Norwegian Commission for Green
Competitiveness and he is member of The
Minister of Climate and Environment’s
Climate Policy Council. In 2013 he was appointed member of the Strategy Council
for the Norwegian Government Pension
Fund Global. He has been a member of the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and has Co-Chaired
their Vision 2050.
Alexander Bigge Lidgren is Cleantech Invest’s CEO since January 1, 2015. Previously, he was managing the cleantech portfolio at the Swedish Energy Agency. He has an
entrepenurial background having founded
Cleantech Scandinavia and Nordic Cleantech
Open where he was also the managing director. Among his previous ventures are Blokks,
a broadband technology company exited to
a stock listed company, and Big Bear, cafe,
gallery and store in central Lund (still around,
go there for good coffee).
He is currently working on two projects
where CLEAN’s Innovation Model is driving
demand driven innovation through public
tenders in plastic recycling and in re-use of
building materials.
Helgesen was a special adviser at the International Red Cross in Geneva 1998–2001.
He was secretary-general of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), in Stockholm from
2006 until he started as minister in 2013.
She is also actively involved in environmental and industrial policy development.
Currently Johannson is excited to work
right in the intersection of two global megatrends: the revolution of smart robotics
technology and the global need for ecological efficiency.
Helgesen was minister of EEA and EU Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Chief of Staff at the Office of the Prime Minister from 16.10.2013 to 16.12.2015.
He is a member of the Board of Aschehoug
Forlag and of the University of Oslo, and
a member of the Advisory Board of NHH
Norwegian School of Economics. Kreutzer
holds a MSc degree in Economics and Business Administration from the NHH Norwegian School of Economics.
Tor Mühlbradt
Mari Pantsar-Kallio
Harald Rensvik
Kjell Roland
Magnus Rystedt
Ash Sharma
Special Adviser, Innovation Norway
Director, Sitra (Finland)
Board member, NEFCO (Norway)
Norfund (Norway)
Managing Director, NEFCO
Special Adviser for Climate Change,
NEFCO
Tor has two master degrees, from NTNU
and BI. Working experience started at Elkem AS in international engineering of
metallurgical plants for world market. Was
transferred to their US office in Pittsburgh,
PA as manager technical services. When
returning to Norway got a position at
GECO AS as responsible for developing mechanical equipment downhole oil wells. 3
years as business consultant specialized in
turnaround of start-ups in financial crisis.
Returned to Elkem AS as manager, technology and projects, total 13 years in Elkem.
Was in 1996 head hunted to the Norwegian
Industrial and Regional Development Fund
(SND) to be responsible for Development
Contracts (IFU/OFU). Advanced to director
Entrepreneurship Department. Responsible for developing innovation and cluster
programs. 3 years as director for Innovation Norway office in Toronto, Canada.
Since 2009 special advisor at IN HQ, industry and renewable technologies.
Mari Pantsar-Kallio leads the “Resourcewise and carbon-neutral society” theme
area. This area aims to help Finland develop
into an ecologically sustainable, competitive society.
Harald Rensvik is currently working as selfemployed consultant within the area of environment and climate change and has for a
long time been the Norwegian member of
NEFCOs Board of Directors. He has over a
period of 15 years served as secretary general in the Norwegian Ministry of Climate
and Environment. Before that he served as
the director general for the Norwegian Environment Agency. In his early professional
career he has worked some years as a water specialist at a local water mangement
organisation.
Mr Roland is CEO of Norfund (the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing
Countries), a Developement Finance Institution with the mandate to invest in
profitable and sustainable enterprises in
a number of the world’s poorest and most
high-risk countries. Before joining Norfund
in 2006, Mr. Roland spent two decades
working as partner and CEO of the consultancy firm ECON Management AS and
ECON Analysis, having co-founded ECON
in 1986. As a consultant he specialized in
macro-economics, development economics and energy and environmental issues,
working for private companies, governments and international organizations
such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Magnus Rystedt, M. Sc. (Civil Engineering),
has been working with project financing
within the environmental field since 1993
and is currently the Managing Director of
the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO).
Ash Sharma is NEFCO’s lead specialist on
climate finance and policy and a former
Vice President at the bank. He was responsible for the development and management of climate finance products and
funds at NEFCO during 2005 - 2014. He
now focuses on strategic climate finance
initiatives, is represented in the steering
groups of several international, multistakeholder climate initiatives (World
Bank, G8, UNEP) and is NEFCO’s focal point
to Nordic Council of Ministers, UNFCCC
and the CCAC. He is the Fund Manager of
the Norwegian Carbon Procurement Facility and team leader for NEFCO technical
support for climate investments by the
Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Energy.
Other: Chairman of the Board ,Industriplan
AS (later part of Multiconsult AS), member of Board NT-programmet (Tromsø),
member of EU Commission Expert Group
Innovation in Services, member of expert
panels at the Research Council, member
of selection committee Norway Grants in
Latvia and Lituania.
From 2011 to 2013, Mari was Strategic Director of the Finnish government’s Cleantech Strategy Programme (within the Ministry of Employment and the Economy) and
in 2007–2011 she was Programme Director
of Finland’s Cleantech Cluster. Between
2000 and 2007, Mari held the post of Manager of Environmental Affairs at UPM. In
addition, she has served on the boards of
several cleantech companies.
Mari has a PhD and holds the status of
docent at Lappeenranta University of
Technology and the University of Helsinki.
Mari views ecological sustainability as the
very basis of our future, rather than as an
optional path.
He has also served as deputy minister in the
Norwegian Ministry for Labour and Public
Administrattion and also served as a resident adviser for the Ministry of Environment
in Namibia. He is trained as chemist and has
a master in inorganic chemistry.
Mr. Roland holds a Master of Science degree from the department of Economics
at the University of Oslo, a lower degree in
Philosophy from University of Tromsø and
has been a visiting scholar at the Department of Economics and the Department of
Operations Research at Stanford University. He has edited and published more than
300 articles and reports, in addition to
seven books, mainly in the field of energyand environmental economics and climate
policy. Mr. Roland has extensive international working experience and has further
served on a number of boards, primarily in
start-ups and entrepreneurial companies.
Before NEFCO, Mr. Rystedt served in St.
Petersburg as the Swedish Team Leader for
Stockholm Water, implementing institutional strengthening of the water company
Vodokanal and also worked with VAI VAProject AB (currently part of SWECO) developing infrastructure projects in Russia and
the Baltic States.
Mr Sharma has been working for 25 years
with energy sector and municipal environmental infrastructure investments in financial, industry and consulting positions,
with projects and activities undertaken in
almost 60 countries.
He is also a Director of African Initiatives,
an international development charity
working on social justice and empowerment issues in Ghana and Tanzania, and
an independent evaluator on sustainable
energy for the European Commission.
By education, Bigge is a M.Sc. (Environmental Management and Policy) and Ba.Sc (Business Administration and Marketing).
Helena Mueller
Senior Manager, KPMG (Sweden)
Helena Mueller (Law and Business Administration), is senior advisor and Sustainability expert at KPMG Sweden. She has
a background within the financial sector
where she spent 12 years and gained thorough experience from integrating ESG
aspects into investment and financing decisions. Since Helena joined KPMG in 2012
she has worked with a broad spectra of
clients, from SMEs to large corporates and
institutions as well as the public sector,
with implementing responsible business
practices in order to protect and create
sustainable value.
She has in-depth understanding of the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
and how PPP’s can be utilized to channel
institutional capital to realize the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Nordic Environment
Finance Corporation
——
info@nefco.fi
www.nefco.org
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