Keynote speakers 2024

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah

Sandra Lupien

Sandra Lupien leads MassTimber@MSU, advancing sustainable mass timber construction and manufacture in Michigan, the Great Lakes Region, and beyond. Through this program, based at Michigan State University in the U.S., Sandra collaborates with interdisciplinary faculty members, industry partners, policymakers, NGOS, tradesmembers, and others on an array of activities and initiatives that are resulting in significant mass timber momentum. Sandra hosts and co-produces with Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Michigan Mass Timber Update, an annual convening of mass timber stakeholders from a variety of sectors across the state. She also serves on the steering committee for the annual International Mass Timber Conference. Sandra became obsessed with mass timber while pursuing a mid-career Master of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley, where she produced her thesis, titled, Removing Barriers to Cross-Laminated Timber Manufacture and Adoption in California: A Game-Changer for Wildfire, Forests, and Climate Change. Immediately prior to leading MassTimber@MSU, Sandra served as a Deputy Director in the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, appointed by Gavin Newsom. Before that, Sandra worked in a variety of outreach, communications, and policy contexts in the not-for-profit and local government sectors, with a focus on climate, sustainability, and environment.

Matti Mikkola

Matti Mikkola Managing Director, Federation of the Finnish Woodworking Industries.

Matti Mikkola has over 30 years’ experience in the Wood Products Industry. Since early 90’s he has been working in several senior management positions and as a member of the management team in company Stora Enso Wood Products in Finland, Germany and Austria including international sales and production management, business development, R&D and new business launches in bioenergy and wood based construction. Since April 2015 Mr Mikkola has been leading the Federation of the Finnish Woodworking Industries and developed the federation to cover over 400 member companies throughout the wood products industry value chain in Finland. Mr Mikkola is an active person in the European as well as the global scene of wood products and wood construction industry. He was the chairman of the board of the European Woodworking Industries (CEI-Bois) 2010-2013 as well as Finnish Standards Association (SFS) 2017-2019 and is presently the chairman of the Finnish Wood Council (Puuinfo).

Sami Uuksulainen

Sami Uuksulainen is an accomplished leader with over 20+ years of diverse experience in the manufacturing industry, encompassing various leadership positions in production, sales and marketing, product management, and R&D. In his current position he is leading UPM Plywood’s product management team, product development- and laboratory functions.

Timo Pakarinen

Timo Pakarinen, born in 1963 in Pyhäselkä, holds degrees in BSc (Eng), MSc (Eng), and Lic (For). Currently a Lecturer at Karelia University of Applied Sciences, his professional journey includes roles as a designer in architectural offices and the furniture industry, developing a strong interest in advancing wood utilization in construction. Mr. Pakarinen served as a researcher in University of Joensuu and Director of the Centre of Expertise in Wood Technology and Forestry. Since 2005, he has contributed to Karelia UAS as a teacher and researcher. His research focuses on the competitiveness of wood construction, innovative wood applications, and structural behavior in wood construction.

Henrik Heräjärvi

Henrik Heräjärvi is professor of wood products technology at UEF. Henrik has long-term research and education experience in wood science and technology, wood product development, and sustainable bio-circular economy. Before entering UEF, he worked 25 years at Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) as a senior scientist. In addition to teaching, research, and various expert duties, Henrik is occupied by “quality overrides quantity” -type of forest management in central Finland.

Cleo Orfanidou

Cleo Orfanidou is a researcher in climate-smart wood use at the European Forest Institute working in the Climate Smart Forestry team within the Bioeconomy Programme. In the recent years, her work centers on the wood use in Europe including the carbon storage potentials and the associated emerging end uses. Her overarching goal is to assess and enhance the role of forests sector and wood products in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Nataša Lovrić

Nataša Lovrić is a Principal Scientist at the UEF School of Forest Sciences in Joensuu, Finland. She holds a PhD degree from Freiburg University in forestry, environmental and natural resources governance as well as holds M.Sc. degrees both in forestry resources management and forest policy and economics. Her expertise lays in international forest bioeconomy, environmental governance and forest policy, and she mostly works on socio-economic aspects of forestry and foresight. She’s has been coordinating several EC Horizon projects. She has a vast experience in EU policy making and has been working in various roles as external expert to the European Commission. Currently she is also a representative of the EU Science Diplomacy initiative. Before joining UEF last year, she worked as researcher at European Forest Institute for 16 years.