New Members Joining NBForum’s Board of Directors

Kirsi Piha, Kim Väisänen, and Risto Lähdesmäki are joining Nordic Business Forum’s board of directors. With the recruitment of these three new board members, Nordic Business Forum acquires more experience in communications, mergers and acquisitions, and internationalization.

Nordic Business Forum’s annual stakeholder’s meeting met on Wednesday last week to discuss a number of exciting updates to the board of directors. Kirsi Piha, Kim Väisänen, and Risto Lähdesmäki will be joining the board as new members.

Kirsi Piha is the founder, co-owner, and chairwoman of the board of Ellun Kanat. She has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry and is a recognized, award-winning author. She is also a former politician, having served on the Helsinki City Council (1992-1996), as a member of parliament (1994-1996, 1999-2003), and as a member of the European Parliament (1996-1999).

Kim Väisänen is a Finnish startup investor and entrepreneur, and one of the five angel investors in Finland’s edition of Shark Tank. Väisänen has received two Internationalisation Awards from the President of the Republic: in 2012 as the CEO of Blancco, and in 2017 as the chairman of the board of directors of Framery.

Risto Lähdesmäki is the CEO and co-founder of Idean Ltd. He has over 15 years of experience in designing digital services, user interfaces, and user experiences, helping to shape the future of UX/UI branding across startups and Fortune 500 corporations. In 2012, Lähdesmäki internationalized Idean in Silicon Valley. Since then, Idean has also expanded to multiple other areas in the US and in Europe.

Alf Rehn, Ari-Pekka Salovaara, and Jyri Lindén will continue as members of the board, and Nordic Business Forum Co-Founder Hans-Peter Siefen will continue as the chairman of the board.

While Nordic Business Forum welcomes the new members to the board, the company wants to thank former board members Petteri Kilpinen and Susanne Najafi for their support and contributions.

Hans-Peter Siefen, chairman and co-founder of Nordic Business Forum: “Susanne joined the board a year ago and has contributed especially within marketing and A&M activities. Petteri served in the board for six years – about half of which as the chairman of the board. Petteri has been a really important guide for me and Jyri as entrepreneurs. We want to thank both for the contribution and hope that we’ll be able to continue to learn from them – even if in a less official form.”