There is an innovative young team of entrepreneurs behind the Nordic Business Forum Oy. Along with the founders Hans-Peter Siefen and Jyri Lindén, the team consists of Mikko Jaatinen, Ville Saarikalle, Ilari Tervonen, Juha Lehto, Lotta Pulkkinen and Priit Liiv. The members share a passion to contribute to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and mindset.
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Hans-Peter Siefen
FOUNDER, CEO, AGE: 29
Hans-Peter is one of the two founders and a seasoned coach at Nordic Business Forum Oy. Hans-Peter’s areas of expertise are sales, self-development, goals and targets, leadership and networking. Hans-Peter began his career as an entrepreneur in 2003, at the age of 19. He had never imagined becoming an entrepreneur, in fact it was the last thing he thought he would do. Then a co-worker sparked an interest in entrepreneurship, and Hans-Peter was swept off his feet by the enthusiasm. New business opportunities enflamed the spark, and so Hans-Peter founded his first company.
In the same year, Hans-Peter came across his first business coaching session. The event in May 2003 at Helsingin Kulttuuritalo was pivotal: the event was professionally organized, the presentations were full of useful knowledge and given by inspiring speakers, and there was plenty of opportunities for networking. In 2005, after two years of active self-development and practice in coaching, Hans-Peter wrote his main goal on paper. It said: “I want to start a business in coaching and self-development”.
Before founding the Nordic Business Forum Oy, Hans-Peter worked as an entrepreneur in investing, leading a branch in Jyväskylä and Tampere. Along with coaching for Nordic Business Forum Oy, Hans-Peter is an investor in real estate.
Jyri Lindén
FOUNDER, CFO, AGE: 26
Jyri Lindén is the second of the two founders of the Nordic Business Forum Oy. Jyri Lindén started his first business at 15 years old with Mikko Jaatinen. The business was a magazine called “NE Nuorta Energiaa”, and it was started through Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JA YE) Company program “a year as an entrepreneur”. The year went well, and Jyri, Mikko and their business partner Risto Majuri won the high school prize for the program with their magazine.
After his brief stint in entrepreneurship, Jyri had a career as a professional athlete. When he retired from sports, he was encouraged by Mikko Jaatinen to have another go at entrepreneurship. Jyri started a business importing sports equipment with his friends, called Jymir Oy.
Hans-Peter and Jyri crossed paths in a marketing lecture at the University of Jyväskylä in 2007. Before the Nordic Business Forum Oy, Jyri worked as an entrepreneur in investing. As well as working in the coaching business of the Nordic Business Forum, Jyri is also a real estate investor.
Mikko Jaatinen
PARTNER, AGE: 26
Jaatinen got his first taste of entrepreneurship in high school with Jyri Lindén and Risto Majuri, when they participated in the JA Company program “a year as an entrepreneur”. That’s when he truly found his passion for learning by doing. Since then, Mikko has been very active in Finnish entrepreneurial education. For example he has been the regional and national project manager in Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JA YE), planned and managed the JA YE 24h-camp, closely collaborated with the Economic Information Office (JA YE 24h pilot and Enterprise Society). Jaatinen was also one of the founders of JA YE Alumni Finland RY, and is now the coordinator of JA YE Alumni Europe. Entrepreneurial education is close to Mikko’s heart, and he is very active in speaking and teaching.
Ville Saarikalle
PARTNER, M.SC. (ECON.), AGE: 30
Ville Saarikalle began his career as an entrepreneur at the age of 19. His first taste of entrepreneurship was starting a business selling mobile devices. He’s also started a workforce outsourcing company. Ville’s areas of expertise are sales and sales management, which also happen to be the topics of Ville’s Master’s thesis for the University of Jyväskylä.
Many remember Ville from MTV3′s business-oriented reality show in autumn of 2010. His main responsibilities in Nordic Business Forum Oy are related to the coaching sessions and weekend seminars. Ville is also responsible for the tailored coaching sessions for businesses.
Ilari Tervonen
AGE: 22
Ilari Tervonen took his first steps on the path of entrepreneurship at the age of 17. His first venture was importing clothes, which led to him creating his own brand. As well as working on his own business, Ilari has worked in many organizations as a significant cornerstone of sales. His areas of expertise are sales and collaborative entrepreneurship.
Lotta Pulkkinen
BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, AGE: 25
Lotta Pulkkinen graduated as a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2011, and has since then worked in administration and customer service roles within Nordic Business Forum Oy. Lotta brings this rather manly team a lot of fresh viewpoints and valuable ideas.
Juha Lehto
AGE: 29
Juha Lehto is about to graduate as a Bachelor of Business Administration from Tiimiakatemia, the Entrepreneurship Center of Excellence of the University of Applied Sciences in Jyväskylä. He is the newest member of the team. In his career so far, Juha has worked in many roles in sales and marketing, and also as a team entrepreneur. His reserve officer’s rank is Lieutenant. Juha’s specialities are new wave marketing (social media etc.), brand management and sales. Juha participates in the creative development of Nordic Business Forum’s operations. Also, Juha is responsible for the technological side of numerous Nordic Business Forum Oy events.
Marko Jalkanen
AGE: 27
Marko is the newest member of the Nordic Business Forum office in Jyväskylä. Because of the entrepreneurial spirit and active self development adopted from the sales world, Marko has worked in many responsible tasks in sales organizations already before Nordic Business Forum. Marko has worked in sales for about six years now, half of this time as the head of sales offices and field sales. During his sales career, Marko also got a couple of years of entrepreneurship experience.
Before his sales career Marko has worked with children and teenagers as a camp leader and a sports coach and also studied social sciences. As the father of two children Marko has the biggest own family of the NBF team.
Priit Liiv
AGE: 27
Priit is Nordic Business Forum Oy’s representative in Estonia. Nordic Business Forum opened an office in Tallinn in the beginning of November 2012 to serve its Baltic customers. Priit has a degree from the University of Tartu where he studied business economics. He has good experience in active saleswork on B2B market and project management in public sector. Before Nordic Business Forum Priit worked at Enterprise Estonia as a coordinator of a business mentoring program.
