Nordea Mentoring Sessions

Mikkel Rørvig

... is Head of Nordea Startup & Growth Denmark.  Structuring and scaling business through an involving leadership has been a recurring theme for Mikkel. He has a demonstrated track record of creating results through +20 years in the financial industry and he has been cross border leader since he was in his twenties. He loves to work with highly skilled people in a dynamic environment. Don´t hesitate to sign up to discuss with Mikkel how to reach your goals on your next financing round.

Vesa Riihimäki

...is Head of Nordea Startup & Growth Finland. Vesa has been in Nordea since 1989 and “founded” the Startup & Growth business in 2013. Today Nordea caters to most of the startups in Finland by combining and tailoring traditional loan products so that they fit better for high-growth situations. The work is done in close cooperation with VC funds, business angels, and accelerators and helping the ecosystem with a strong global venture network. How to build investor networks and prepare for you next financing round? A mentoring session with Vesa might bring you valuable insight.

Nina Arkilahti

... is Head of Business Banking and a member of the Nordea Group Leadership Team. She is passionate about supporting start-ups, small and medium size businesses to grow and sees leadership, networks and partnerships as key success factors for sustainable growth. Before joining Nordea Nina worked in several leader positions at Handelsbanken including Country Head of Finland and General Manager in Germany. Join Nina to discuss different aspects of international leadership and growth.

Nahale Ståhl-Hallengren

... has worked as a legal professional in Stockholm, Copenhagen and New York with loan products, financial crime prevention and building legal functions that manage legal advisory over a large span of regulatory areas, such as data privacy, Anti-Money Laundering, competition, antitrust and employment law. She is currently strategic legal adviser to the leadership team for Group Business Services and Group People at Nordea as well as managing a cross-border team of professionals within these areas.

Ulrika Romantschuk

... is heading brand, communication and marketing at Nordea, a leading bank in the Nordic region.  She is also a member of the Group Leadership Team. Creating brand awareness and customer engagement are close to Ulrika’s heart.  Prior to joining Nordea Ulrika held several positions at Fazer Group, most recently as Executive Vice President, Communication and Branding, and a member of the Group Management Team. She has a strong track record within brand building, communication marketing and sustainability in combination with execution of strategies, deep understanding of the business to consumer relationship, the food industry as well as the Nordic financial services sector. She is also an experienced board member.

Jussi Koskinen

... joined Nordea as Chief Legal Officer and Board Secretary in 2018. Prior to Nordea he worked in the telecommunications industry with Nokia in a number of senior inhouse legal positions (specialist as well as leadership) with global responsibilities while being based in Finland, Singapore and India. Jussi has a deep understanding of and extensive knowledge on telecommunications as well as the financial services industry – and what challenges corporations can face both regionally in the Nordics as well as globally. Jussi is passionate about cross border leadership and troubleshooting and can brainstorm about a number of challenges and share war stories from his own experiences around the world. Jussi has also been the chair of a board of a small Finnish med tech startup and can reflect deeply on the challenges of startups.      

Lars Espevik

... is an experienced people leader heading a legal team at Nordea which provides legal advice to the Business Banking business area. He works as a general counsel and acts as strategic legal adviser to the leadership of the Business Banking area and to senior management in Norway. He has extensive experience of the banking market and small and middle sized businesses in the Nordics in addition to having broad knowledge of financial regulation and banking law.

Lars knows how to build a winning team where the right people do the right things. His strengths include keeping up motivation among his people and getting people onboard when making changes. He thoroughly understands the value a strong internal legal function can bring to a company and can advise on managing legal risks, including external legal advisors and costs. Lars is passionate about using legal technology in business and legal advice. 

Christina Gadeberg

... is HR Executive with more than 20 years of strong experience within development and implementation of strategic HR in close connection with business units and executives. She is Head of Group People and a member of the Nordea Group Leadership Team. She has experience as trusted member of top management teams and responsible for all aspects of HR mainly within the financial industry. Christina has managerial background as direct leader and leader of leaders in small and large (+500) units. If you are interested in how to create strong leadership culture from day one, an hour mentor session with Christina will light up your day.

Jan Bonnevier

... is Nordic Head of Marketing Excellence of Nordea, where he leads the planning and execution of broad reach marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Nordea, Jan worked at Nokia with global product launches and go-to-market initiatives for both smartphones and digital services and gained experience working with sales and marketing at Rovio when it was still a startup. If you are growth-minded and entrepreneurially wired and need concrete marketing advice – why not book a mentoring session with Jan?

Teija Nousiainen

...is Deal Flow Manager at Nordea Startup & Growth. Her mission is to offer the best matchmaking in the Nordics and help Nordic founders and Global/European/Nordic investors to find each other. During the past year Nordea Startup & Growth has connected over 250 founders and +270 VCs to each other in Nordea’s Investor speed date events. Teija has screened hundreds of startup & growth companies pitch decks and can give you a few tips how to attract the investors & what not to do.

Olli Anteroinen

... is Head of Business Model Development in Business Banking COO - Digital Scalable Model, where the team serves small and midsized corporate customers through web and mobile platforms. Olli´s previous experience is a great combination of digital and business development in banking and insurance services. He has also previous experience working with startups from concepting, signing an co-operation contract to running cooperative businesses.  Join mentoring session with Olli to discuss how to meet your company´s growth targets with scaling product management and developing your business model.

Antti Salmenvaara

... is Senior Legal Counsel at Nordea Private Banking Finland. He has a wide area of expertise in Finnish legal aspects on establishing and restructuring corporates, planning ownership changes and shareholder´s agreements and preparing a business exit strategy. Antti has the talent to mentor you in wealth planning and tackle challenges from regulations and taxation in Finland. All you need to know is where your goal is – Antti can advise you in your business and personal wealth planning.

Oskar Kihlmark

... is Head of Startup  & Growth SE, a leading highly skilled team of growth bankers. Oskar´s passion is to help startups grow by giving advice, find the best solutions as well as connecting them to the right investors. Oskar believes that finding the right financing mix is key when scaling a company. He is happy to mentor startups on their financing journey as well as building high functioning teams.