Antti Niemelä

Antti Niemelä is a Finnish diplomat specializing in trade and technology. His experience covers policy, bilateral relations and export promotion – in all six inhabited continents.

Antti currently serves as the Head of Section for
Sustainable Growth and Commerce of the Finnish Mission to the United States. In his role, Antti leads a team dedicated to advance Finnish technology, trade, and climate policy goals, and promote collaboration between the United States and Finland in different sectors of economic activity. He has special emphasis on new technologies.

Since joining the Finnish Foreign Service in 2010, Antti has served in several trade related roles, most notably as the Editor-in-Chief of Kauppapolitiikka (Trade Policy) Magazine and as Deputy Head of Mission in Australia and in Thailand.

Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Antti worked in private sector as senior lobbyist, journalist, and entrepreneur, mostly in South Korea. He specialized in free trade agreements, ICT, and financial services, and was founding partner of a Korean–Finnish technology trading company, which specialized in introducing environmentally friendly solutions between Nordic and Korean markets. He has also served in the Boards of Finnish Chambers of Commerce in Australia, Thailand, and United States (Washington). Antti started his career as a sports journalist.

Antti has three Master’s Degrees on different fields, including an Executive MBA.

Thomas Ryden

Thomas Ryden is the Executive Director of MassRobotics, a non-profit organization whose mission is to support the robotics community and help grow the next generation of robotics and connected device companies. MassRobotics runs the world’s largest robotics and IoT focused co-working space.

Prior to joining MassRobotics, Mr. Ryden was the founder and CEO/COO of VGo Communications where he helped launch the VGo telepresence robot. Previously, Mr. Ryden was Director of Sales & Marketing for iRobot Corporation, overseeing the development of some of iRobot’s most successful products.  Mr. Ryden serves on the Tufts University Computer Science Advisory Board, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Robotics Engineering Advisory Board, the Mechatronics & Robotics Engineering (MRE) Education Advisory Board, and the Robotics Technical Advisory Panel for ASME.  He is an advisor to a number of robotics start-ups. Mr. Ryden has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont and an MBA from Bentley University.

Sean Kagan

Ascendant Program Services, LLC provides contract support services to SelectUSA, a program within the U.S. Department of Commerce facilitating business investment into the U.S.

As acting Northern Europe Portfolio Manager, Sean provides oversight and support of investment promotion work consulting with C-level executives across all sectors looking to grow and expand their U.S. operations from Greenland, Iceland, UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia. Prior, Sean was a Trade and Investment Officer/Vice Consul with the British Government’s Department for International Trade, advised tech companies on their expansion and growth efforts across the Atlantic and was based at the British Consulates in Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco. Sean has a B.A. in International Relations and in East Asian Languages and Cultures from USC (University of Southern California), and studied Japanese and International Business at Waseda University in Tokyo, and International Security at the University of Cambridge.

Niklas Kiviluoto

Niklas career spans international business development, technology design and development, startups, and research. His customers have included many Fortune 100s, as well as a number of high growth startups. He started his career at Åbo Akademi, School of Business, where he completed a Ph.D. on startup growth & profitability, researched business model innovation, as well as taught entrepreneurship and market research. He co-founded Planet Company and in his current role, at Business Finland NYC, he helps Finnish digital startups enter, grow, and fundraise in the US. He has worked with 150+ Finnish companies widely across the digital domain. In the US since 2017, Niklas currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Val Kratzman

Mr. Kratzman has over 35 years’ experience in the international marketplace working with start-ups through Fortune 100 companies. He has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business equation having established US operations for foreign companies; launched new consumer, medical, and scientific products; and has been active in M&A and IP transactions. 

Mr. Kratzman is currently Director of Healthcare for the Americas for Business Finland (Finland’s innovation, investment, trade, funding, and tourism agency) where he works with startups and SMEs to clinically validate new healthcare technologies and globally grow those companies. Val’s work with Finland started in 1994 when he was appointed Trade Commissioner to the United States. He served as the head of the Finland Trade Center in Washington, D.C. sitting on the Ambassador’s commercial staff.

Prior to Business Finland, Mr. Kratzman lead the KPMG team that created the international management consulting company BearingPoint. He was Vice President and Global Director of Economic Development for Burson-Marsteller acting as a foreign direct investment advisor to several prime ministers.

Mr. Kratzman is a graduate of the Wharton Business School and the Pennsylvania State University. He further completed graduate studies in Health Care Administration at George Washington University. He is a mentor and judge at the Yale CBIT Healthcare Hackathon and a mentor at MIT Hacking Medicine. Val is a published author and a guest lecturer at Aalto and The New York Universities and the Wharton Business School. He resides in Fairfield, CT with his wife, an environmental educator.

Jim Brisimitzis

Jim has over 20 years of enterprise, channel, and startup experience through companies such as Bell Canada, Nortel Networks, PeopleSoft, Oracle and over 13 years at Microsoft. Jim is the Founder of the 5G Open Innovation Lab in Seattle. The Lab is a community of innovators, platforms, and industry focused on discovering, accelerating, and promoting future 5G inspired used cases and innovation. Prior to launching the Lab Jim was a Managing Partner for Quake Capital leading their early efforts to establish a presence in the ecosystem. Jim was also the General Manager of the Microsoft for Startups program in the United States and Canada. His team was responsible for startup engagements partnering with leading North American startup accelerators/incubators.

Together with these partners Jim’s team engaged over 2,800 startups actively running on Azure through programs such as the Customer Access Program (CAP), technical enablement, and events to help startups accelerate their business. Prior to launching the Microsoft for Startups program. Jim led operations for Microsoft Ventures globally in addition to creating and launching their “HiPo” program; an exclusive engagement for Startups with significant market potential.

Minna Logemann

Minna Logemann received her doctoral degree (D. Sc. Econ.) in international business communication from the Aalto U., School of Business in Helsinki, Finland 2014. She joined Baruch College as Assistant Professor of Global Corporate Communication in August 2017. She teaches undergraduate and graduate students, as well as in executive education programs, and her research is aimed at publishing in peer-reviewed research journals on strategic transformations, organizational communication, and virtual teams in global organizations. Prior joining the academia, she worked for 20 years in business positions in Finland, the UK and in the USA, last as SVP Corporate Communication and Investor Relations at KONE Corporation, and Director of International Communications at Lutron Electronics Inc.

Katarina Holm-DiDio

Kat is a Leadership and Executive Coach, and an Intercultural Trainer with over 20 years of experience in the global, intercultural, international development and business fields. She brings her expertise in global leadership and performance coaching, communication across cultures, and mental strength and resilience. An expatriate turned immigrant to the US, she grew up in Finland, and has called the US home for the past 21 years.

She launched her US career at Columbia University, then moved on to serve at the UN Secretariat in Human Resources for several years before she left to fulfill a more entrepreneurial dream as an intercultural trainer and HR consultant. Currently she coaches and trains global leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and those working globally. 

Kat is ICF Certified in Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance and has two master's degrees:  in Mental Health Counseling and in Social Science. As an avid networker she thrives on connecting people and servs on several non-profit boards in leadership positions. She lives in New Jersey, is married to Philip and a mother of two teens, they have two cats.

John R. Lynly

John has been in the elevator industry for 36 years and spent the last 33 years with KONE. He has held various roles in sales management, branch and regional management, strategic accounts and also spent 3 years abroad as part of the KONE Customer Experience Group. John is now heading acquisitions and strategic growth initiatives for the Americas. His primary focus over the years has been management, business development and sales effectiveness across all areas of the vertical transportation business. Although originally from California, he currently resides in Northern New Jersey. 

Mikko Jaatinen

Mikko is the founder and CEO of Jamix. 

Over 30 years ago in 1989, when Mikko had studied for three years IT at the University of Jyväskylä Finland, he created a software for professional kitchens to build recipes, plan menus and calculate nutrition and costs. The software was initially meant just to be used by his girlfriend of that time on her catering studies at a culinary school. Word of this new software however spread quickly and in 1990 he sold the first copy of Jamix to that culinary school, and dozens of other food service operators followed suit already during that first year, and thus a business was established.

This over three decades’ long journey has been filled with constant and active product development and the system has grown into a fully featured Kitchen Intelligence System which can run even the largest foodservice operators’ planning and production. Over a million meals a day are prepared every day by thousands of kitchens using Jamix. In Finland 57% of all the cities use Jamix to manage school lunch operations.

In 2018 Jamix entered the US market while Mikko moved to Boston Massachusetts and established a subsidiary Jamix, Inc. there. A year later Jamix signed its first customer agreement with Yale University. Others have followed, and now Jamix is on the brink of a rapid growth in the US.

George S. Gans

George is a Business Tax Partner based out of Pittsburgh with over 23 years of tax experience. George has experience in serving a wide variety of tax clients including both public and private companies in the life sciences, hospitality, electric utility, and manufacturing industries. George leads KPMG’s France, Canada and Israel tax corridor efforts. He has significant experience in serving  foreign based clients with presence in the U.S. He has assisted many of these clients in numerous tax M&A projects. He also has close to 20 years of experience in managing global compliance for U.S. based multinationals.

Professional and Industry Experience:

George has experience as lead tax partner for several large manufacturers. George has been involved in numerous tax consulting projects including tax compliance, research and development tax studies, accounting method reviews, and many M&A and restructuring projects. 

George has over 5 years of teaching experience in the Masters of Tax Program at California State University – Northridge, where he was named outstanding faculty of the year for 2011, 2012 and 2014. George also has 2 years of teaching experience in the MBA program at the University of Pittsburgh. 

George was a frequent speaker at national and international seminars on topics related to inbound taxation, accounting method issues, and other US tax related topics. He also spoke regularly about the cultural difference of doing business globally and other management and professional related topics.

Michael Goodman

Mike’s experience includes significant operational experience in technology companies, M&A and deal-making from a corporate perspective, business development in the technology area and international strategic planning for Fortune 500 companies.

Mike leads Pharus’s practice areas in industrial software, retail software, e-Commerce & Advertising Technology BPO, IT Services as well consumer products and healthcare.

Prior to founding Pharus, Mike was Vice President and General Manager of govWorks, Inc. where he was responsible for the company’s consumer division and online business. Before govWorks, Mike was Director of Corporate Development and Director of e-Business for Revlon. Prior to Revlon, Mike was in the Corporate Development group at R.R. Donnelley & Sons, served in the National Economic Council at the White House and was a management consultant for William Kent International, a boutique consulting firm focused on international strategy.

Mike graduated with a BS in Economics, cum laude, from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA, with honors, from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Andrew Flett

Andrew Flett has spent the last two decades investing in the technology industry; specializing in mobility, communications, security, software, and data analytics. At Mobility Impact Partners, he focuses exclusively on transportation mobility technologies that underpin the trillions of dollars of economic output of the emerging mobility infrastructure. Through Growth Control Capital, he splits his time between primary investment activities in the growth equity space and mentoring startups in the general technology space with a heavy concentration in connected vehicle technologies. Prior to Growth Control Capital, Andrew spent 15 years at Investcorp as a Partner in the technology growth buyout business having responsibility for all facets of deal making. His track record includes international transaction experience throughout the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Asia including buyouts, carveouts, growth equity, general M&A, and IPOs; primarily for control equity situations though less frequently, substantial minority stakes. Education credentials comprise a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Victoria and an MBA from the Wharton school at the University of Pennsylvania.

Nathaniel Lucek

Nathaniel Lucek is a partner in the corporate and intellectual property group at Hodgson Russ LLP. Much of Nathaniel's practice focuses on intellectual property law, including the preparation and prosecution of patent applications, M&A, and opinion work. He has supported intellectual property portfolio development for entities ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to universities and startups. Nathaniel also assists European clients with formation of U.S. subsidiaries, contracts, and other corporate issues.

Heather Kimmins

Heather Kimmins is an associate in the business and international tax group at Hodgson Russ LLP where she advises businesses, individuals, and non-profit organizations on tax-related matters and planning. She regularly assists clients with cross-border tax planning, M&A support, and U.S. business expansion.

Ari Almqvist

Experience:

• In Finland: Professional school teacher, Purchasing Engineer, Project Engineer and Moog Manager

• In Europe: Management role for: Product Line, System Engineering, Business, General Manager, European Manager for Projects, Engineering and Market Development

• In US: VP for Industrial (Americas), Industrial Services Globally, Growth and Innovation and M3 Operations and Execution
  
  

Tea Tuominen

Co-founder of ExtraVallis, a startup funding platform introducing curated, global startups to U.S. based investors. Interim CFO since 2014 for a number of international technology startups providing hands-on support on capital raising processes, financial planning and analyses, accounting and other strategic finance issues.  

Previously co-founder and corporate development director of Eaton Towers, a pan-African telecom infrastructure company. Acquired by American Towers in 2019. Prior to Eaton held various senior corporate finance roles and worked as an investment banker in London (Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, JP Capital).

MSc. in Economics from the University of Helsinki and a CFA Charterholder. Based in New Jersey since 2015.

David Johnson

David is head of the Emerging Business Group. He assists corporate and individual clients with immigrant, nonimmigrant and citizenship matters. He provides advice on immigration-related onboarding compliance issues.

David helps foreign entrepreneurs and start-up businesses establish their presence in the U.S. Working with emerging businesses from their inception, David develops an understanding of their strategic goals, and creates tailored immigration solutions to help facilitate their growth. He partners with other attorneys in the Emerging Business Group to provide all aspects of their corporate needs and develop long-term partnerships.

Prior to joining Gibney, David served as an immigration attorney with the Staff Attorneys’ Office of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Juha Koponen

Juha is a dual-qualified (Finland and New York) transactional lawyer who focuses his practice on capital markets and public M&A transactions. He has advised issuers and underwriters on public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, including IPOs, high-yield debt offerings, convertible debt issuances and rights offerings. He also regularly advises bidders, target boards, financiers and large shareholders on tender offers. Chambers Global ranks Juha as one of the few US Capital Markets Experts based in Finland (Capital Markets: USA – Foreign Experts). All major legal directories, such as IFLR1000, The Legal 500, and Chambers rank him as a “Market Leader” or a “Leading Lawyer” in capital markets in Finland. Juha is also an international fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Juha has significant experience in public and private mergers and acquisitions, especially in the cross-border context. Throughout his career, which spans over 20 years, Juha has also gained significant experience in private M&A, venture capital and financing transactions.

Prior to joining Borenius, Juha was a Partner with another major Finnish law firm. His prior experience includes working as an Associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP for three years (New York and London) and as a Corporate Legal Counsel at Nokia Corporation focusing on securities regulation.

In addition to heading the firm’s Capital Markets & Public M&A team and our London and New York offices, Juha acts as head of the firm’s Financial Institutions & Regulation team.

Jonna Yli-Äyhö

Jonna works as a Senior Associate in Borenius’ tax team in Finland. Jonna advises clients on domestic and international corporate taxation. She specialises in tax questions related to M&A transactions, group reorganizations, financing and international taxation. Jonna also handles advance ruling proceedings, tax audits and tax disputes. In 2019, Jonna was on rotation in Borenius’ New York office. Jonna has also worked as a tax manager for a multinational firm and a tax advisor for a major auditing firm.

Kenneth Kraszewski

Kenneth Kraszewski is a Senior Associate in Borenius’ New York office. He is a New York-qualified attorney with extensive knowledge of the American and Finnish markets. Kenneth regularly assists Finnish clients on establishing their businesses in the US. He has significant experience in setting up US subsidiaries and negotiating the acquisition of existing businesses, joint ventures, shareholder, agency and distribution agreements. Prior to joining Borenius in 2019, Kenneth worked as an associate at another Helsinki-based law firm, practicing in its corporate, transactions and finance group and served as a judicial law clerk in the US, where he focused on corporate law cases.

Rosellen Marohn

Ros Marohn is an associate in the corporate and business group at Hodgson Russ LLP. She represents domestic and international clients on a variety of general corporate matters. Ros also regularly assists with software licensing and data management issues.

Emily Florczak

Emily Florczak is an associate in the business litigation group and the antitrust, trade regulation, and anticorruption group at Hodgson Russ LLP. She helps companies with commercial disputes and contract litigation. Emily also assists clients with a variety of antitrust issues, including pre-merger notifications, due diligence, government investigations, and Hart-Scott-Rodino filings before the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.