Meet the influencers driving the green transition in the Nordics

The Nordic region has long been at the forefront of the renewable energy space, with its abundant natural resources and proactive government policies. Most of the region’s energy is generated from renewables, compared to about one-fifth for countries across the rest of the European Union.

The Nordic countries all met their 2020 targets set out in the EU Renewable Energy Directive two years ahead of schedule.

Here, we highlight the industry professionals taking the lead in the region’s renewable industry and setting examples to inspire others around the world.

Paula Kivimaa

Paula has been at the Finnish Environment Institute, SYKE, for 11 years and is currently Research Professor, Climate and Society. She is focused on the role of the public sector and intermediaries, improving the connection between energy policy and national security in order to advance the zero-carbon transition.

Aditi Bhasin

Aditi is a Business Developer & Funding Officer for Lhyfe after five and a half years as a project manager at IVL, the Swedish Environmental Research Institute. Aditi is one of the representatives at Smart City Sweden, responsible for promoting sustainable solutions and technologies developed in Sweden to decision-makers in other countries. She also sits on several boards promoting sustainability.

Faisa Abdi

Faisa is CEO and co-founder at QC Renewable Energy, an energy company with energy and waste operations focused on Sweden and East Africa. The company was born from meetings between students from Dalarna University’s energy engineering and solar energy programs and is committed to positively impacting the world with the help of renewable energy sources.

Aiko Nakano Hylander        

Aiko has a background in research on environmental issues and is currently Senior Advisor at Nordic Energy Research in Sweden. There she focuses on the Clean Energy Transition Partnership, a strategic partnership of national and regional research and development programs in EU member states and associated countries.

Anna Nordling

Anna has experience in the energy industry in both Sweden and South Africa. She is currently the Director of Energy at the international consulting company WSP. Anna is also a board member at Kraftkvinnorna, a Swedish network aiming to increase female leadership in the energy sector.

Fanney Frisbæk        

Issues related to sustainability and multidisciplinary cooperation have been at the heart of Fanney’s career since its start in 2001. In April 2023, Fanney moved to a senior strategic sustainability consulting role at Rambøll Management Consulting in Norway after five years at Nordic Energy Research, the last three of which she was Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Gerd Kjølle

Gerd has worked at SINTEF Energi in Norway for over three decades and is currently Director at the Centre for Intelligent Electricity Distribution (CINELDI) after over eight years as Chief Scientist. CINELDI supports the design of a flexible and robust electrical distribution grid to prepare for increased distributed generation from renewable generation, the electrification of transport, and energy efficiency.

Saira Alladin

Currently Head of Asset Management at Swedish power distribution company Ellevio, Saira previously held the role of Director of Asset Operation & Maintenance at Vattenfall’s Swedish distribution unit. Before this, she held various positions at the European engineering consultancy company Sweco, where she worked for more than a decade.

Pirjo Jantunen

Pirjo specializes in business development, energy transition, carbon neutrality, circular economy, and corporate social responsibility as Business Manager at Motiva Services in Finland. Pirjo is also Finland’s Clean Energy Ambassador at the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) technology program.

Nicki Carnbrand Håkansson         

Nicki’s primary expertise is in carbon capture and storage (CCS) and its related technologies through her role as Programme Manager at the National Centre for CCS at the Swedish Energy Agency. From 2021-2022, Nicki was the primary CCS adviser at Nordic Energy Research. She specializes in the legal and political aspects of CCS in Sweden and the Nordic region.

Lorea Coronado-Garcia

Lorea is co-founder and COO of Norway-based Spoor, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) data platform that enables continuous monitoring of wildlife for large-scale infrastructure projects before and after construction. Between 2015-2018, Lorea worked on sustainable energy and supply chain projects at the UN Development Program (UNDP).

Kristin Jordal

Kristin has been a research scientist at SINTEF Energy Research in Norway, one of Europe’s largest independent research organizations, for nearly two decades. Kristin has previous work experience from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Vattenfall, and Siemens Industrial Turbines and has been active in CCS research since 2002.

Kolbrún Ragna Ragnarsdóttir

Head of Innovation at Orka náttúrunnar (ON Power) in Iceland, one of the world’s largest geothermal power companies, Kolbrún has more than a decade of experience in geothermal research and development. She also has experience as a board member of the Renewable Energy Cluster and a member of the Women in Energy board.

Ilka von Dalwigk

Currently Policy Manager at InnoEnergy in Sweden, Ilka has over a decade of experience in the energy sector, including several roles at utility company Vattenfall. Ilka has also been Senior Adviser of International Affairs at the Swedish Energy Agency since 2015.

Fredrik Andresen

Fredrik has been CEO of Norwegian battery recycler Batteriretur since 2016 and was previously the company’s COO for a year. He has spent the past decade developing EV battery solutions with importers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Noor E Hira

As an electrical engineer majoring in renewable energy, Noor is passionate about playing a role in the electrical energy sector to help achieve a carbon-free society. She is currently a Technical Support Engineer on the Asset & Customer Management supporting Vattenfall’s EV charging network, InCharge.

Youssef Benmakhlouf

Youssef is Head of Storage Deployment at Alight, a Swedish company that develops, operates, and owns solar assets for corporations across Europe to accelerate the renewable transition. Youssef was previously an analyst and business development manager at Azelio, a Swedish company specializing in dispatching solar power through energy storage.

Søren Lassen

Head of Global Offshore Wind Energy Research at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables in Denmark, Søren analyzes and forecasts value chain dynamics, technological advancements, and policy developments across the offshore wind industry.

Marina Sundman

Marina is passionate about building a sustainable society. She has experience in strategy and project management in technically and commercially complex projects and developing and implementing asset management strategies. She is currently the Director of the Utility Business Unit at solar energy solutions firm Solkompaniet in Sweden.

Rinto Cheruvil

As a Process and Production Associate at Swedish solar energy company Midsummer, Rinto conducts various tests to improve thin film solar cell and module efficiencies and works with data analysis. Through this work, he has achieved milestones and records for maximum outputs and the production of Thin Film Wave panels.

Jens Sperens

Jens is the Country Head of Sweden at ib vogt GmbH, developing and delivering high-quality large-scale turnkey photovoltaic (PV) plants and battery energy storage systems (BESS) worldwide. Jens was previously Project Development Manager at Vattenfall and Coordinator of Climate and Energy Issues at the County Administrative Board of Norrbotten.

Johan Sandberg         

Johan was responsible for developing the offshore standard for floating wind turbine structures and has significant experience in onshore wind, wave, tidal, solar PV, and power transmission. He has been CEO at Swedish floating wind turbine developer SeaTwirl since March 2023.

Vane M. Aminga

A Project Manager at Ramboll in Sweden, Vane is skilled in low-carbon development, renewable energy engineering, and sustainable development. Vane was previously a Senior Technical Analyst at Azelio. She implements economic and social justice empowerment programs through her Fly Sister Fly Foundation, which she founded in 2011. The foundation aims to empower, build peace and provide energy access to disenfranchised communities through renewable projects.

Josef Carlson

Josef is the Utility Optimization Lead at Svea Solar in Sweden, responsible for designing and optimizing Svea Solar’s largest solar park projects in Europe. His passion lies in the intersection between innovation and clean technology.

Claus Pedersen         

Claus co-founded Danish solar energy equipment supplier ENcombi in 2018 to provide easy-to-use and install energy management systems for decentralized PV and hybrid power plants. He previously worked at energy control solutions provider DEIF.

Gustav Orrevad

Gustav is a senior power system engineer specializing in the electrical grid and solar technology, aiming to deliver technical solutions for a fossil-free energy system. Gustav is the CEO of his company, Orrevad Solar, which focuses on the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of solar and battery solutions. He provides consulting expertise on grid technology, solar, battery, and charging solutions.

Eren Engur

Eren has over 20 years of experience as a solar and energy storage executive. During this time, he founded Energy Storage Turkey and was the founder and CEO of ICARUS Energy Group, a utility-scale PV project developer and the first company in Turkey to import lithium-ion batteries in 2016. Eren has been at Swedish energy storage system developer Azelio since 2021.

Angela Hultberg

Angela is Global Sustainability Director at the US consulting firm Kearney in Sweden. Before this, she worked as the Head of Sustainable Mobility at IKEA and has broad experience in ESG, circularity, and supply chain management.

Rasmus Rode Mosbæk

As CEO and founder of Hybrid Greentech in Denmark, Rasmus aims to inspire organizations to invest in electrical energy storage to support 100% renewable energy. Rasmus is also a member of the technical committee for battery safety at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Matti Parpala

Matti is the CEO and co-founder of Finnish utility-scale solar developer Will & Must. He has over 25 years of executive office and board experience and has overseen company strategies and investments that have significantly reduced CO2 emissions.

Scott Urquhart

Scott is the CEO and co-founder of Denmark-based Aegir Insights, developing advanced investment solutions and research for the energy transition. Before this, Scott worked as Chief Strategy Officer at Stiesdal, a climate technology company in areas of floating offshore wind, long-duration energy storage, and power-to-X.

Morten Gleditsch

Morten is Head of Solar Power at Norwegian engineering and design consultancy Norconsult AS. Previous to this, he held solar consulting and grid department engineering roles in Norway, Taiwan, and Nicaragua.

Christina Buhl

Christina is an electrical engineer specializing in solar energy and the CEO and co-founder of Becom AS in Norway. Before this, she worked as a project developer for large-scale solar power plants in Norway at solar startup Endra and power company Haugaland Kraft after four years as an Energy Advisor at Entro.

Stephen Bull

Stephen is EVP of Strategy, Portfolio & Sustainability at energy engineering company Aker Solutions and Chair of RenewableUK. He has worked for over 20 years in trading, energy market analysis, risk management, oil and gas, and offshore wind operations, including at Equinor/Statoil and Norsk Hydro.

Matilda Machacek

With almost 20 years of experience in global energy and power, Matilda has held various engineering, leadership, managerial, and board positions. She is currently VP for Offshore Development in the Nordics for RWE. She previously spent 15 years at Equinor, working in its UK Renewable Energy Division from 2010, focusing on business development and strategy.