Mart Maasik, Investment Director at UniTartu Ventures (LinkedIn)
Mart heads UniTartu Ventures, the investment company of the University of Tartu, and is contributing to the rollout of Kood/Jõhvi and developing its partner relations and business model. Mart sees the Innovation Leaders Club as a way to do more to promote cooperation in practical innovation between companies by sharing more talent and knowledge and applying them more effectively. He says that the quality of innovation management is very important and that Estonia still needs to take some steps, but it is much easier to do so together than separately. Mart is one of the founders of the Innovation Leaders Club.
Sander Välk, Innovation Lead at SEB (LinkedIn)
Sander leads innovation processes and the innovation programme at SEB Pank, which boosts both in-house innovation projects and those aimed at Baltic companies. Sander’s goal is to launch cooperation projects that focus on sustainability, and to develop new products and services that answer to the needs of customers. Sander sees that the Innovation Leaders Club is a great way to bring together experts from different fields to share knowledge, identify unique problems, and create new partnerships to solve those problems.
Sander also supervises Masters students at Imperial College London and develops tools for supporting cooperative creation between scientists and designers.
Inge Laas, Innovation Sectoral Manager at Enterprise Estonia and KredEx (LinkedIn)
Inge keeps Enterprise Estonia abreast of innovation and helps it contribute to innovation in every possible way. Inge noted the foundation of the Innovation Leaders Club in 2020 and decided that Enterprise Estonia could not stand back from such an organisation. Inge says that Enterprise Estonia is very happy to share information and give support to its network. Inge earlier worked in banking and telecoms. She de-stresses in the mornings by going for a run.
Helen Sulg, Head Of Development & Partnerships at Keskkonnainvesteeringute Keskus (Environmental Investment Centre) (LinkedIn)
Helen promotes the green transition at the Innovation Leaders Club to unite the goals of climate neutrality with innovation, though she also looks at the broader picture by trying to balance economic and environmental interests. Helen believes that nudging mutual development of the private and public sectors is good and healthy and that everyone benefits from it. She has found many people in the club who agree with her and has gained useful tools from it, and she says that being a member has been inspiring in every way. Helen has contributed to the launch of the Jõhvi Gümnaasium school through innovation in development and education. She is very interested in human development, and plays tennis in her spare time.
Siim Lepisk, Head of Innovation at NetGroup (LinkedIn)
Siim has been involved in digitalising businesses for over 20 years. He is a mentor for startup firms at Tehnopolis and Prototron and has at times served as a co-founder. Siim was previously the innovation manager at SEB Pank. Siim says that Net Group is a very good example of innovation, and he is keen to share the knowledge gained there with the Innovation Leaders Club. Siim is one of the founders of the Innovation Leaders Club.
Kadi Steinberg, Head of the Eesti Energia Enefit Idea Hub and Partner Relations (LinkedIn)
Kadi is responsible for leading innovation processes and introducing greener energy services at Eesti Energia. She has been very involved in building the Enefit Idea Hub within the Eesti Energia group. Kadi believes that large companies can learn a lot from startups. Kadi’s educational background is in business management, but she has also studied psychology and attended international training courses in innovation.
Kristiin Bauer, Head of Production Planning at Standard (LinkedIn)
Kristiin’s main role at Standard is to introduce more innovation and digitalise production. Having studied production and worked in it for some time, she represents the production side of business in the Innovation Leaders Club, as the only member of the Supervisory Board with that background. To counterbalance the focus on production, Kristiin started her own business Her Events in 2020, which organises events mainly aimed at women such as hen parties and baby showers, though she has also now moved into stag parties. In these events too, Kristiin hopes mainly to take an innovative approach and to offer new solutions.