
Making waves for social innovations
Waves summit encourages everyone to take part in creating a sustainable future and make change happen.
If you are passionate about getting inspired, learning new things and connecting with people interested in tackling the most significant challenges we stand before, Waves is for you.
We want to create a platform for increased collaboration across sectors and challenge you to take action towards reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals and creating a better tomorrow.
Most importantly – we want to invite you to join the celebration of the changemakers, social innovators and impact entrepreneurs. Welcome!
Accelerating Changemaking
At Waves, changemakers can network, get visibility, and find new ideas and tools for changemaking as well as meet potential investors.
You will experience what can be achieved through social innovation and learn ways of developing your role in supporting and accelerating change.

Waves is for you
Waves is a one day summit in Helsinki that brings together our society’s forces of change, actors committed to social innovation and systems change: Changemakers, innovators, academia, impact entrepreneurs, private and public actors, and investors.
We will hear keynote speeches, presentations, panel discussions, take part in workshops as well as connect, network and enjoy each other's company.
Read more about the speakers below.
Agenda
This year's theme is enabling change:

Hannah Kuper
Professor in Epidemiology at LSHTM, the Missing Billion initiative
Hannah co-founded the Missing Billion Initiative, which focuses on improving access to healthcare for people with disabilities globally, by working with governments, donors, healthcare systems and people with disabilities.

Markus Raivio
CEO at Kukunori
Markus Raivio is a leading social entrepreneur who co-founded Kukunori in 2012 to design an entirely new way of working with mental health clients through culture. Through his organization, Kukunori, Markus is championing social welfare through an approach centered on promoting human and civil rights.
9.00-9.10 Welcome by Ashoka
9.10-9.30 Setting the Scene, Hannah Kuper (Professor in Epidemiology at LSHTM, The Missing Billion initiative)
9.35-9.55 First Ashoka Fellow in Finland, Markus Raivio (CEO at Kukunori)
9.55-10.05 Q&A and session facilitated by Ashoka

Sara Lindeman
Co-Founder and CEO, Leapfrog Projects
Sara Lindeman is deeply dedicated to developing excellence in addressing complex sustainability challenges. She wants to see a rapid, widespread and high-quality societal transformation towards an increased balance between social, economic and ecological systems. Starting her work in academia, she holds a PhD in sustainable market organizing.
Later, Sara initiated and led a large transdisciplinary research and innovation project on how to co-innovate the future’s sustainable solutions for emerging markets. Sara co-founded Leapfrog Projects to spearhead transition design.
“Head, Heart, Will: Building capabilities for transformative change making”, session led by Sara Lindeman, Leapfrog Projects with talks and a panel discussion.

Cristina Ljungberg
The Case for Her
Cristina Ljungberg is a Co-founder of The Case for Her, a philanthropic investment portfolio addressing the key women’s health issues of menstruation and women’s sexual health & pleasure. Before The Case for Her, Cristina established the foundation Giving Wings in 2010.
She is also an active board member for the global non-profit, Acumen, focused on poverty alleviation through impact investing and leadership development, as well as AFRIpads, a manufacturer of reusable cloth menstrual pads.

Maria Ahlström-Bondestam
Chair of UNICEF International Council
Maria Ahlström-Bondestam co-founded The Eva Ahlström Foundation in 2010 and have since continued the work for underprivileged women, and children that began in the late 19th century.
Maria Ahlström-Bondestam initiated, co-founded, and chaired the HAPPY and TOGETHER projects, working for a more equal and sustainable world. In 2020, Maria initiated a collaboration called Ahlström Collective Impact with the aim to make strategic investments with impact to support the realization of the United Nation’s SDGs together with UNICEF. In 2021, she was elected Chair of the UNICEF International Council.

Evita Chiang Zanuso
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Evita is Head of Strategic Partnerships and also leads on the Impact Academy at Katapult Foundation. Prior to Katapult, she was part of the Senior Management team at Big Society Capital, a leading UK social investment institution.
She has served on a number of Boards including the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, RCB plc and Bethnal Green Ventures.
10.15-10.45 “Partnering for and investing in highly stigmatized themes”, Cristina Ljungberg (Co-founder, The Case for Her)
10.45-11.15 “Creating something new from shared history and values – Changemaker’s story”, Maria Ahlström-Bondestam (Chair of Unicef International Council, Chair of Ahlström Collective Impact)
11.15-11.30 Discussion and questions facilitated by Evita Chiang Zanuso (Head of Strategic Partnerships, Katapult Foundation)

Åsa Skogström-Feldt
Managing Director, IKEA Social Entrepreneurship BV.
Åsa Skogström Feldt is leading IKEA Social Entrepreneurship BV. Åsa has been the global president and CEO of The Hunger Project in New York and the CEO of The Hunger Project Sweden. She has also established social entrepreneurship in the supply chain at IKEA of Sweden, being the head of marketing for Sony Ericsson in Germany, corporate communications director for Aspiro and marketing communications manager for Ericsson Mobile Communications in the Middle East and Africa.
Throughout her carrier, Åsa has focused on women empowerment, co-founding two women’s organisations.

Liisa Smits
Founder & CEO, Ignitia; Ashoka Fellow
Liisa Smits has developed an accurate and reliable weather forecast system for the tropics. By making it accessible to smallholder farmers the service empowers them to make educated decisions to increase efficiency and agricultural yield. Upon graduation, she moved to the US to work on climate change research as part of a NASA research project.
While monitoring climates in different parts of the world, she discovered that the formula for calculating weather patterns and forecast for the tropics was extremely unreliable. Liisa then decided to use her skills and background to make a sustainable impact and founded Ignitia.
“Collaborating for impact - Reflections on corporate social responsibility and partnership”, Åsa Skogström-Feldt (CEO of IKEA Social Entrepreneurship) & Liisa Smits (CEO and founder of Ignitia)
Discussion facilitated by Agata Stafiej-Bartosik (Ashoka)

Benjamin Pitkänen
Young Changemaker, Viral Vegans
Benjamin Pitkänen is a passionate vegan activist and one of the founding members of the Viral Vegans Animal Rights Association. Benjamin's work in front of animals has been covered in the big Finnish media outlets.
Benjamin runs Viral Vegans with his team, holds speeches at various events, and does social media activism. He wants to wake people up to think about how our consumption habits relate to animals' exploitation and killing.

Ronny Eriksson
Young Changemaker, Co-founder of Ambitious Africa
As the co-founder of Ambitious Africa, Ronny is connecting, inspiring and empowering young people in all African and Nordic countries to work together, lead the change and create transformation.
Ronny is actively building ecosystems both locally and globally, focusing on fields such as entrepreneurship, education, entertainment, food and communities.

Salaado Qasim
Author, Columnist and Co-founder of the Peace and Well-being organization
Salaado Qasim is an author, columnist, teacher and Co-founder of the Peace and Well-being organization RAHY (Rauhan ja Hyvinvoinnin järjestö ry) a non-governmental organization founded in 2019 that aims to improve the living conditions of women and young people by providing opportunities in the Helsinki metropolitan area.
The organization has been set up by university students with solid experience, especially young people and women.
Youth panel with Benjamin Pitkänen (Co-founder, Viral Vegans), Ronny Eriksson (Co-founder, Ambitious Africa; Co-founder Norders), Salaado Qasim (Co-founder of the Peace and Well-being organization), moderator Eli Ingvarsson (Ashoka Nordic)

Mikko Dufva
Leading Specialist, Foresight, Sitra
Mikko Dufva is Leading Foresight Specialist at Sitra (The Finnish Innovation Fund) and docent in future studies at Aalto University. In his work, he examines future trends, the tensions between these trends and mental images connected with the future. In addition, he seeks to identify signals that may be weak now but which nevertheless are significant for the future.
Mikko has extensive experience in foresight studies and he has a doctorate in Science (Technology) on creation of futures knowledge and systemic foresight.
Mikko Dufva (Leading Specialist Foresight, Sitra)

Mark Cheng
Managing Partner of Social Innovation Circle
Mark Cheng is the Founder and Managing Partner of Social Innovation Circle, a global coaching platform for social innovators. Mark is an impact investor who has raised and invested over $250M into social impact organizations around the world.
Since 2010, he has been the Senior Advisor on Social Finance at Ashoka, and has coached and mentored many social impact founders in how to create sustainable business models for social change. Mark is the author of the ‘Social Investment Toolkit’, a free online guide for impact entrepreneurs on how to raise finance for social innovation.

Markus Freiburg
Founder & CEO, FASE – The Financing Agency for Social Entrepreneurship
Together with Ashoka, Markus Freiburg has founded the Financing Agency for Social Entrepreneurship (FASE) in Germany. FASE helps leading social enterprises across Europe in raising hybrid growth capital so that they can scale their social impact.
Markus is recognized as a thought leader for social finance in Germany and beyond. He has an active presence in public discourses and wrote a wealth of articles, reports and case studies on best practices in social finance. Prior to this, Markus worked for more than 7 years as consultant for McKinsey & Company.
13.20-13.50 Building impactful new business models to power social change. Mark Cheng (Founder and Managing Partner, Social Innovation Circle)
13.50-14.20 Creating a thriving ecosystem for social innovation by boosting impact finance. Building bridges between social entrepreneurs and investors. Dr. Markus Freiburg (Founder and CEO, FASE - Financing Agency for Social Entrepreneurship GmbH)

Evita Chiang Zanuso
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Evita is Head of Strategic Partnerships and also leads on the Impact Academy at Katapult Foundation. Prior to Katapult, she was part of the Senior Management team at Big Society Capital, a leading UK social investment institution.
She has served on a number of Boards including the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, RCB plc and Bethnal Green Ventures.

Sara Lindeman
Co-Founder and CEO, Leapfrog Projects
Sara Lindeman is deeply dedicated to developing excellence in addressing complex sustainability challenges. She wants to see a rapid, widespread and high-quality societal transformation towards an increased balance between social, economic and ecological systems. Starting her work in academia, she holds a PhD in sustainable market organizing.
Later, Sara initiated and led a large transdisciplinary research and innovation project on how to co-innovate the future’s sustainable solutions for emerging markets. Sara co-founded Leapfrog Projects to spearhead transition design.
“Moving people, capital and tec for good”, Evita Chiang Zanuso (Head of Strategic Partnerships, Katapult Foundation).
Panel discussion moderated by Sara Lindeman (Co-founder and CEO, LeapFrog Projects)

Hanno Nevanlinna
Co-founder, Creator of New at Futurice
Hanno Nevanlinna is one of the founders of Futurice. He has walked the path from a startup to an international company. Hanno is one of the masterminds of the Futurice culture as well as Lean Service Creation methodology. During 2004-2009, Hanno innovated, planned and built Finland’s largest photo sharing service Kuvaboxi. From 2008 to2010, he founded the Futurice UX consultant team and during years 2010-2013, Hanno led as head of HR Futurice to be the first company ever to be selected as Europe’s best workplace twice in a row.
Currently, Hanno talks and teaches companies how ways of working, culture and organizations are key in building a better future. Through his hobby project, Hanno is an internationally awarded furniture designer. With his work, Hanno goal has been to show that everything can be revisitted to create more value to the users, society and business.
This workshop guides changemakers to look at their endeavour from various perspectives and opens up glitches for new connections, Hanno Nevanlinna (Co-founder, Creator of New at Futurice)

Elisa Vepsäläinen
CEO, StartUp Refugees
For the past five years, Elisa Vepsäläinen has led the rapidly growing Startup Refugee, which supports people with refugee status in entrepreneurship and employment.
In her work, she has focused on promoting social responsibility and effectiveness, while also building relevant brands and bringing together different actors to address societal challenges.

Mårten Knuts
Managing Partner, Krogerus
Mårten Knuts is the Managing Partner of Krogerus, one of the leading law firms in Finland. He represents a wide range of clients in cross-border and domestic corporate transactions.
Mårten regularly advises boards in listed companies on corporate governance matters and assists in strategic disputes pertaining to complex regulatory matters.

Mari Tikkanen
CEO & Co-founder, Scope Impact
Mari Tikkanen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Scope Impact. She is also the Co-Founder of Innovation Lead, Missing Billion. Mari leads the Scope by developing new ways of delivering social impact.
Prior to co-founding Scope in 2008, Mari worked for 15 years on women’s and children’s health and rights, including for WHO South-East Asia Region, UNFPA, IPPF, AMREF and Aurat Foundation in Pakistan. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field of development and health.

Neslihan Dane
Vice-Chair of SKY (Suomen Kulttuurienvälinen Yhteisö)
Neslihan Dane is Vice-Chair of SKY (Suomen Kulttuurienvälinen Yhteisö), the Finnish Intercultural Community.
By profession, she is a Mathematics teacher with 11 years of experience teaching in Thailand, which also served her to widen her networks, meeting new people and learning their cultures. That was actually the reason why SKY attracted Neslihan as it aligns with her enthusiasm to support volunteering for multicultural initiatives.

Ari Evwaraye
Head of Strategy, Finnish Ministry of the Interior
Ari Evwaraye has strived to be a changemaker and impact evangelist in government and the field of human security. As Head of Strategy at the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, Ari has furthered initiatives related to equality, human rights, feelings of safety and social impact within the policy area of internal security.
Phenomenon- and human-centric approaches, as well as co-creation, foresight and systemic solutions, get him excited. In addition to his professional engagement, Ari has been active in a few NGOs aiming for a brighter future for people in vulnerable positions.
Panelists: Elisa Vepsäläinen (StartUp Refugees), Mårten Knuts (Krogerus), Mari Tikkanen (Scope Impact), Neslihan Dane (SKY ry Suomen kulttuurienvälinen yhteisö ry), Ari Evwaraye (Head of Strategy, Ministry of the Interior).
Please note that this year’s Waves Summit is a hybrid event.
This means that some of the content during the day will only be available in person.
The sessions that are held on the Main Stage will be live streamed online throughout the day. There will also be sessions that are accessible online only. Links to the online sessions together with the Main Stage sessions will be sent to all attendees after the Summit.
Meet the speakers

Ari Evwaraye
Ari Evwaraye has strived to be a changemaker and impact evangelist in government and the field of human security. As Head of Strategy at the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, Ari has furthered initiatives related to equality, human rights, feelings of safety and social impact within the policy area of internal security.
Phenomenon- and human-centric approaches, as well as co-creation, foresight and systemic solutions, get him excited. In addition to his professional engagement, Ari has been active in a few NGOs aiming for a brighter future for people in vulnerable positions.

Åsa Skogström Feldt
Åsa Skogström Feldt is leading IKEA Social Entrepreneurship BV. Åsa has been the global president and CEO of The Hunger Project in New York and the CEO of The Hunger Project Sweden.
She has also established social entrepreneurship in the supply chain at IKEA of Sweden, being the head of marketing for Sony Ericsson in Germany, corporate communications director for Aspiro and marketing communications manager for Ericsson Mobile Communications in the Middle East and Africa.

Benjamin Pitkänen
Benjamin Pitkänen is a passionate vegan activist and one of the founding members of the Viral Vegans Animal Rights Association. Benjamin's work in front of animals has been covered in the big Finnish media outlets.
Benjamin runs Viral Vegans with his team, holds speeches at various events, and does social media activism. He wants to wake people up to think about how our consumption habits relate to animals' exploitation and killing.

Cristina Ljungberg
Cristina Ljungberg is a Co-founder of The Case for Her, a philanthropic investment portfolio addressing the key women’s health issues of menstruation and women’s sexual health & pleasure. Before The Case for Her, Cristina established the foundation Giving Wings in 2010.
She is also an active board member for the global non-profit, Acumen, focused on poverty alleviation through impact investing and leadership development, as well as AFRIpads, a manufacturer of reusable cloth menstrual pads.

Dora Hietavirta
Dora Hietavirta is a professional who is always curious and thinks beyond the obvious or accepted. Her most recent interests are complex systems, regenerative systemic design, and urban development.
The lenses that Dora constantly sees the world through are learning and community development.

Elisa Vepsäläinen
For the past five years, Elisa Vepsäläinen has led the rapidly growing Startup Refugee, which supports people with refugee status in entrepreneurship and employment.
In her work, she has focused on promoting social responsibility and effectiveness, while also building relevant brands and bringing together different actors to address societal challenges.

Evita Chiang Zanuso
Evita is Head of Strategic Partnerships and also leads on the Impact Academy at Katapult Foundation. Prior to Katapult, she was part of the Senior Management team at Big Society Capital, a leading UK social investment institution.
She has served on a number of Boards including the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, RCB plc and Bethnal Green Ventures.

Gunta Krumina
Gunta Krumina is an innovative, professional business development consultant, as well as a systems change facilitator and advocate.
She designed and led systems thinking workshops and training together with team members from Systems Change Finland. One of her visions is to bring forward the best of systemic innovation for a better, sustainable, and inclusive world.

Hannah Kuper
Professor Hannah Kuper is a Co-founder of the Missing Billion Initiative. She is also the co-director of the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is an epidemiologist by training, having attended Harvard University and Oxford University. The main focus of her work is on health and healthcare access of people with disabilities in low and middle-income countries.

Hanno Nevanlinna
Hanno Nevanlinna is one of the founders of Futurice. He has walked the path from a startup to an international company. Hanno is one of the masterminds of the Futurice culture as well as Lean Service Creation methodology.
During 2004-2009, Hanno innovated, planned and built Finland’s largest photo sharing service Kuvaboxi. From 2008 to2010, he founded the Futurice UX consultant team and during years 2010-2013, Hanno led as head of HR Futurice to be the first company ever to be selected as Europe’s best workplace twice in a row.

Iina Santamäki
Iina Santamäki is a regenerative leader, systems thinker and bridge-builder with a vision to co-create a just and sustainable future for all.
Her latest degree, an M.Sc. in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability, combines systems thinking and complexity science, strategic leadership and sustainability science, and thus provided her with the skills and knowledge to facilitate and lead processes for systems change. Currently, Iina is an entrepreneur and a Specialist at The Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra.

Liisa Smits
Liisa Smits has developed an accurate and reliable weather forecast system for the tropics. By making it accessible to smallholder farmers the service empowers them to make educated decisions to increase efficiency and agricultural yield.
While monitoring climates in different parts of the world as part of a NASA research project, she discovered that the formula for calculating weather patterns and forecast for the tropics was extremely unreliable. Liisa then decided to use her skills and background to make a sustainable impact and founded Ignitia.

Mari Tikkanen
Mari Tikkanen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Scope Impact. She is also the Co-Founder of Innovation Lead, Missing Billion. Mari leads the Scope by developing new ways of delivering social impact.
Prior to co-founding Scope in 2008, Mari worked for 15 years on women’s and children’s health and rights, including for WHO South-East Asia Region, UNFPA, IPPF, AMREF and Aurat Foundation in Pakistan. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field of development and health.

Maria Ahlström-Bondestam
Maria Ahlström-Bondestam co-founded The Eva Ahlström Foundation in 2010 and have since continued the work for underprivileged women, and children that began in the late 19th century.
Maria Ahlström-Bondestam initiated, co-founded, and chaired the HAPPY and TOGETHER projects, working for a more equal and sustainable world. In 2020, Maria initiated a collaboration called Ahlström Collective Impact with the aim to make strategic investments with impact to support the realization of the United Nation’s SDGs together with UNICEF. In 2021, she was elected Chair of the UNICEF International Council.

Mark Cheng
Mark Cheng is the Founder and Managing Partner of Social Innovation Circle, a global coaching platform for social innovators. Mark is an impact investor who has raised and invested over $250M into social impact organizations around the world.
Since 2010, he has been the Senior Advisor on Social Finance at Ashoka, and has coached and mentored many social impact founders in how to create sustainable business models for social change. Mark is the author of the ‘Social Investment Toolkit’, a free online guide for impact entrepreneurs on how to raise finance for social innovation.

Markus Freiburg
Together with Ashoka, Markus Freiburg has founded the Financing Agency for Social Entrepreneurship (FASE) in Germany. FASE helps leading social enterprises across Europe in raising hybrid growth capital so that they can scale their social impact.
Markus is recognized as a thought leader for social finance in Germany and beyond. He has an active presence in public discourses and wrote a wealth of articles, reports and case studies on best practices in social finance. Prior to this, Markus worked for more than 7 years as consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Markus Raivio
Markus Raivio is a leading social entrepreneur who co-founded Kukunori in 2012 to design an entirely new way of working with mental health clients through culture. Through his organization, Kukunori, Markus is championing social welfare through an approach centered on promoting human and civil rights.
Kukunori ultimately aims to develop new and innovative solutions to challenges in the mental health and cultural sectors. In addition, Markus is taking the unique Guided Functional Peer Support model (GFP) that he developed to 43 organizations across the health sector.

Mikko Dufva
Mikko Dufva is Leading Foresight Specialist at Sitra (The Finnish Innovation Fund) and docent in future studies at Aalto University. In his work, he examines future trends, the tensions between these trends and mental images connected with the future. In addition, he seeks to identify signals that may be weak now but which nevertheless are significant for the future.
Mikko has extensive experience in foresight studies and he has a doctorate in Science (Technology) on creation of futures knowledge and systemic foresight.

Neslihan Dane
Neslihan Dane is Vice-Chair of SKY (Suomen Kulttuurienvälinen Yhteisö), the Finnish Intercultural Community. By profession, she is a Mathematics teacher with 11 years of experience teaching in Thailand, which also served her to widen her networks, meeting new people and learning their cultures. That was actually the reason why SKY attracted her as it aligns with her enthusiasm to support volunteering for multicultural initiatives.

Ronny Eriksson
As the co-founder of Ambitious Africa, Ronny is connecting, inspiring and empowering young people in all African and Nordic countries to work together, lead the change and create transformation.
Ronny is actively building ecosystems both locally and globally, focusing on fields such as entrepreneurship, education, entertainment, food and communities.

Salaado Qasim
Salaado Qasim is an author, columnist, teacher and Co-founder of the Peace and Well-being organization RAHY (Rauhan ja Hyvinvoinnin järjestö ry) a non-governmental organization founded in 2019 that aims to improve the living conditions of women and young people by providing opportunities in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The organization has been set up by university students with solid experience, especially young people and women.

Sara Lindeman
Sara Lindeman is deeply dedicated to addressing complex sustainability challenges. She holds a PhD in sustainable market organizing.
She initiated and led a large transdisciplinary research and innovation project on how to co-innovate the future’s sustainable solutions for emerging markets. Sara co-founded Leapfrog Projects to spearhead transition design.

Mårten Knuts
Mårten Knuts is the Managing Partner of Krogerus, one of the leading law firms in Finland. He represents a wide range of clients in cross-border and domestic corporate transactions. Mårten regularly advises boards in listed companies on corporate governance matters and assists in strategic disputes pertaining to complex regulatory matters.

Tomas Björkman
Tomas Björkman is an author, social entrepreneur and the Founder of Ekskäret Foundation in Stockholm.
He is also the Co-founder of the research institute Perspectiva in London, the Co-creation Loft, the media platform Emerge in Berlin, and the 29k.com personal development platform.
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With inspirational speakers, hands-on workshops, panel discussions and the possibility to connect with other participants, we want to make waves for social innovation. In partnership with key...
The purpose of Waves - Summit for Changemakers, Social Innovations and Impact Entrepreneurs is to challenge actors across different sectors to build a more sustainable future together, especially...
About
Waves summit is an event aiming at accelerating social innovation and networking among professional changemakers in Finland.
The summit takes place on 15 September at Miltton House in Helsinki.
You can also participate in the summit online*.
*If you participate at Waves online, you will receive directions on how to attend the summit in your confirmation email.
How to get there
Miltton House
- Address: Haapaniemenkatu 5, 00530 Helsinki
- Entrance is accessible
The Summit is held on the 1st and 2nd floors of the building. There is an elevator in the building.