Keynote players

Christian ASPEGREN is Founding Managing Partner of Global Faculty Partners for Problems Worth Solving LP, a born global to be launched at EBRF 2011 Business Creation Games. Christian has almost 40 years of experience of developing and launching market leader products and services as Product Manager, CEO, Management Consultant and Entrepreneur. In 2009, he joined GVL Finland, as Co-Creator, and candidate for PhD on Global Venture Creation.

Dhrubes BISWAS is Professor of Electronics and Head of Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. He has co-founded several technology ventures in America, Asia and Europe, is a Co-Founder of Global Venture Lab (GVL) and the Founding Father of the Rural India Health Kiosk, an ambitious, scalable, social entrepreneurship based venture and platform for simultaneous ecosystem level business creation.

Will CARDWELL is Head of Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship (ACE). This born American, former venture capitalist, growth venture CEO and managing director of Technopolis Ventures is well groomed for his role as the quarterback of enterprise in Finland's new innovation university. He also has important early work experience from the world of university researchers from his service at the Helsinki School of Economics (HSE), today part of Aalto University.

Paul DINE is Founding Partner of Global Leadership Alliance and Assistant Dean of Top Talent Study Programs at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The makings of this cross-cultural guru include service as Professor of Theology at Pontificio Collegio Beda, in Rome, a career as a Siemens Executive with global responsibilities related to cross-cultural group education & training, and another career as Management Professor teaching, cross-culturally, around the world.

Mark HARRIS has over 30 years of experience in the high tech industry, most recently at Intel. As Director of Higher Education for Europe, he was responsible for advancing innovation in key areas of Intel, collaborating with top universities to expand their curricula. During the past decade, he built Intel’s Global Technology Entrepreneurship with UC Berkeley. He has experienced first-hand the difficulties, especially in Europe, of building entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Lesley HETHERINGTON is Director of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Skills at the University of Aberdeen and Senior Teaching Fellow and architect of comprehensive future curricula for the Scottish Programme for Entrepreneurship. She Co-Chairs the European Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education EREE and is an inspirational and dedicated entrepreneurship educator always in the lookout to push the envelope of enterprise education.

Guus KEDER has over 20 years experience from corporate finance, venture capital and growth venture creation. Having served as partner at the London based Alta Berkeley Associates, and in the board of Finland’s seminal VC success story, IOBOX, he founded Axiom Venture Capital in 2002, as pioneering pan-European boutique for the clean tech space. Currently, he is active in building Ukrainian renewable energy technologies to world markets.

Reijo LUOSTARINEN is Founder and Professor Emeritus of International Business (IB) programme and the Centre for International Business Research at Aalto University. He has served as President of European International Business Academy (EIBA) and has a vast global experience via visiting professorships, board memberships and consulting. Today, he chairs a number of Born Globals and devotes time & energy to advancing the art of global business creation.

Alf REHN is a globally renowned Business Thinker, writer and speaker, and Professor of Management and Organization at Abo Akademi University. He also serves as Chairman of Finland’s fastest growing advertising agency, Satumaa. The Times has labeled him a “star of the future” and Thinkers 50 ranked him #13, in their Guru Radar, among the world's top business thinkers. His most recent book, Dangerous Ideas, presents an alternative take on creativity and business.

Roberto SANTORO is a leading figure in the European Living Lab arena and the Founding Chairman of the European Society of Concurrent Enterprising Network ESoCe-NET, a non-profit organization bringing together academics, researchers and industry practitioners to stimulate the exchange of ideas, views, practices and latest research and developments in the diverse field. This widely networked Italian from Rome is dedicated to maximizing wellbeing.

Taneli TIKKA is a Serial Entrepreneur and Play Maker known from Internet based ventures such as IRC-Galleria, Dopplr, Muxlim, StarDoll, RunToShop, and Vakuutuskone.com. This Aalto University School of Economics graduate currently serves as CEO of Soprano Brain Alliance and assists the TEKES funded accelerator program Vigo as member of the steering board. Looking back at 2010, the FIPA nominated him as Finland’s Opinion Leader in ICT.

Marko TURPEINEN is the Director of EIT’s unit in Finland. He heads the Helsinki node of ICT Labs, one of EIT’s three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). The Aalto University professor also holds a chair in media technology at KTH in Stockholm. In 1996-2005, he held several executive positions at Alma Media Corporation. The man believes in the game-change capacity of pan-European partnerships to business creation in Europe.