Nordic Leaders

In this episode of the Nordic Leaders Podcast, Stefano Mosconi and Nick Vertigans sit down with executive search expert Terhi Klemetti to unpack what it really takes to build world-class companies in the Nordics. With decades of experience placing top executives in VC- and private equity-backed companies, Terhi offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how leadership talent is identified, assessed,...

The Nordic Leaders meet Nordic Blue Crime! In this episode, we sit down with Satu Rämö — bestselling Finnish author, Icelandic resident, and creator of the hugely popular Hildur crime series. Satu is a master of paradox. She’s a crime writer who can’t stand the sight of blood. A daily runner who lives by strict routines, yet writes fiction filled with wild unpredictability. A storyteller who leads...

In this episode of Nordic Leaders: Fail Smart , we welcome back Jarmo Suominen, CEO of Rejlers Abu Dhabi, marking his second appearance on the podcast—our first returning guest! We explore leadership lessons from one of the UAE's fastest-growing professional services firms, diving into resilience, growth, and adapting to an ever-changing business landscape. Key Takeaways: 1. Focus and Learnin...

In this insightful episode of Fail Smart , we sit down with Asko Känsälä, former Deputy CEO of Elisa, a leading telecommunications company in Finland. Known for his sharp thinking and profound insights, Asko shares the experiences, philosophies, and failures that have shaped his leadership journey. Together with Asko we explore what it means to lead with empathy, balance, and impactful simplicity....

Natal Dank is the Co-founder of PXO Culture, Chief Trendwatcher at the HR Trend Institute and named one of the Most Influential HR Thinkers of 2022 by HR Magazine.  Recognized as a pioneer of Agile in the people profession, Natal hosted the first London-based Agile HR Meetup in 2016, which has since grown into a global movement reshaping the L&D and people profession. Helping to make workplace...

Dr. Nicholas Samstag is a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist based in New York City. With a diverse background spanning theater to ancient Greek and Latin studies, his journey into psychology and psychoanalysis has been influenced by a range of experiences.  In this episode, Nicholas discusses how his varied path shaped his approach to psychoanalysis and leadership, and offers elegant insight...

Immerse yourself on a journey of discovery in this conversation about Paradoxical Thinking and Leadership with author and philosopher, Ivo Brughmans. Get ready to challenge your own assumptions and self-perception. Ivo delivers an insightful message about embracing the ‘power of both sides’ of our personalities. Reaching out for the side of our personality that we don’t see or use, or even like th...

🗨️" Create habits that create a good life. " In this episode we catch up with Taneli Rantala, CEO of Lifted , and dip in to highlights of Taneli's journey from a strategy consultant to a visionary entrepreneur.  Taneli´s philosophy emphasizes the importance of leadership style, organizational culture, personal development, and taking hard decisions to create successful, resilient le...

A warm and polished performance from Dutch organizational theorist Fons Trompenaars, recognized around the world for his work as a motivational speaker, consultant, and author of several books on culture and business. He spent over 30 years helping Fortune 500 leaders build meaningful connections to manage and solve business and cultural dilemmas to increase global effectiveness and performance. R...

Celine Pasula has over a decade of leadership experience in top mobile gaming companies including startups and bigger companies. Today, as the Managing Director of Ubisoft RedLynx, she's working with experiences on all platforms, mobile, PC, and console. Celine is not only an expert in leadership, finance, legal and business development but also in building a great company culture. She is a f...

"Music attracts luck" - Nitin Sawhney In this episode we have a warm and uplifting chat with Nitin Sawhney, musician, producer and composer, known around the world for his  albums, film scores, DJ skills, and collaborations with Paul McCartney, Sting, Jeff Beck, Ellie Golding,  Annie Lennox, Will Young, Bob Geldof, Andy Serkis, Mira Nair, Anushka Shankar, Nora Jones, Herby Hancock and Da...

You’ve probably heard of Hal Gregersen… A global name in leadership and academia. An author and senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at MIT's Sloan School of Management, a former executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, and ranked in the  Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers in 2021.  His latest book, Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most V...

Now here’s a conversation we can all relate to, on the nature of working life today and how to navigate people, tech, and change, gracefully.   Johanna is co-founder of RELEX Solutions, a huge success story and the world's coolest provider of retail planning solutions!  Johanna describes what it’s like navigating the ‘hard skills’ world of engineering, data and tech, and at the same time shar...

Fail Smart: Lessons in Leadership & Life  The brilliant Charles Jennings covers everything you need to know about life and learning in way less than an hour:    Recognised as one of the world's leading experts on building and implementing learning and organisational performance strategies. He’s led pioneering work with the 70:20:10 model for 20 years + and led learning and performance imp...

Tendayi Viki, Associate Partner at Strategyzer   Fail Smart - Lessons in Leadership and Life: The new series from the Nordic Leaders. We couldn’t possibly imagine a better way to start our Fail Smart series than this sparkling conversation with Tendayi Viki. Tendayi advises leaders across the globe on strategy and innovation, helping companies to explore and create the future. He is a speaker, fac...

In this episode we welcome Dr Matt Offord , esteemed lecturer in Leadership and Management from the Adam Smith Business School, Glasgow University . Matt is a former Naval Officer with extensive experience leading agile 21st-century teams in high tech and data rich environments. Matt shares many fascinating insights which include; ·      ‘Harnessing informal power is a very healthy thing; the idea...

This week we host Patricia Ryan Madson. Patricia is the author of " improv wisdom " and a professor emerita at Stanford university, where she started teaching in 1977. In 1996 she founded the creativity initiative at Stanford, an interdisciplinary Alliance of faculty who share the belief that creativity can be taught. Among other things she taught Design Improv for the School of Engineer...

Perttu Pölönen is a futurist, inventor and author. In 2018 MIT Tech Review honored him among the 35 Innovators Under 35 in Europe. He has written two books and his latest, “ Future Skills ”, is out just now. In this book he argues that the next revolution is a human revolution. To counterbalance the world we digitalized, we need to develop creativity, perseverance, compassion, and curiosity—those...

“Everyone should do something to make the world a better place.”  Listen in to the inspiring tale of 17000+ vegetable boxes and recipes delivered to Finnish families.    The social economy in the EU comprises 2.8 million enterprises and organizations, 13.6 million jobs and 8% of GDP. It’s an important part of the economy, and the influence is increasing - so it was high time we invited Emilia Järv...

We explore the world of meaningful values, story telling and The Inclusion Canvas with Essi Knuutila of Futurice. Essi is Global Head of Digital Marketing and discusses how Futurice's values of ' Care, Trust, Transparency and Continuous Improvement' shape this global digital innovation and engineering company. Essi also describes how the values came into being, 'We didn't...

We dive into the world of influence with Mikko Alasaarela , but influence with an algorithmic twist. Mikko is an impact-focused AI entrepreneur. He has founded and invested in several tech startups that have raised over $30M and employed over 700 people in Finland, Germany, and the USA. He currently serves as CTO of Cuckoo Workout and consults companies about AI, blockchain and algorithms at inbot...

In today's episode we are delighted to welcome Matt  Abrahams , communication expert and lecturer at Stanford University .   We will talk all things communication. The episode is packed with insights so please take a notepad and make sure to take notes. We are going to explore: How communication has changed during the pandemic How to help our audience to be more engaged How to make a great po...

In this episode, recorded in June 2021 our guest is Kati Tammisto , (then Head of CX at Sympa and now) CMO at Precisely . Kati is a modern leader with an entrepreneurial background who puts people front and centre in everything she does. Kati shares her insights on working in 'extremely fast growth' environments and the adaptability and flexibility that one needs to operate therein. She...

"I'm not a loser - the story I told myself for years"  In this very frank episode Tommi Lähde - Founder and CEO of The Other Danish Guy brand - opens up with courage and radical candour.  Listen in to this most candid of interviews with the only CEO in the world to work just in his underwear for the first two weeks on the job.    What we cover: 🎧 being honest with yourself and boun...

Welcome to Season 4 of the Nordic Leaders Podcast! In this episode we interview André Noël Chaker , speaker, entrepreneur, executive and lawyer that came from Canada to Finland 30 years ago. What we cover: André's beginnings and his move from Quebec to Finland (4:54) What Arnold Schwarzenegger taught him (6:09) How he turned a hobby into a profession (and got all these cool "gigs")...