Tuomas Auvinen has built his career in the field of creativity and cultural leadership and has broad experience in demanding leadership roles at arts institutions.

He has worked as the CEO of The Association of Finnish Theatres, as Administrative Director of the Finnish National Theatre, and as the Principal and Dean of the Sibelius Academy, amongst other positions. In addition, Auvinen has extensive experience in creative leadership training and consultancy and has held several chairman and board member positions in cultural and creative industries companies. 

He is the leader of Kristiania’s Center for Arts Management and Leadership Research, and he has conducted research on relationships between autonomy and value creation across the creative industries, the digitization of entertainment industries and published on topics such as digitization and diversity in the film industry, new channel strategies, project strategy, and the economic efficiency of copyright enforcement. He is also responsible for Kristiania’s executive program in Strategic Storytelling. 

In addition to his academic work, Terje Gaustad is an associate partner in Menon Economics, a consultancy operating at the interface of economics, politics, and the market, and he has a professional entertainment industry background that includes producer credits for theatrical feature films such as the British comedies “Save Angel Hope” (2007) and “Nasty Neighbours” (1999). 

Terje Gaustad holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the BI Norwegian Business School and an M.A. in Communication Management from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California.

Astrid Huopalainen is a qualitative researcher who studies the connections and possible conflicts between art and organization, leadership in creative organizations, and creative work in the post-industrial era. Her multidisciplinary research interests include organizational aesthetics, leadership for creativity, and interactions between art and management.

Professor Malmi specializes in management systems, strategy implementation, and cost and profitability accounting. He teaches frequently in a variety of Executive Programs and has served as an advisor to a large number of companies from various different industries: IT, electronics, energy, finance, food, health care, media, metal and engineering, paper and pulp, pharmaceuticals, rental services, retail, telecom and transportation/logistics and the public sector.

Teemu Malmi holds a Ph.D. in Accounting and Finance from The Helsinki School of Economics, which was merged into Aalto University in 2010.

He has worked with Aalto EE for around 30 years specializing in developing the leadership skills of executives who are part of ambitious businesses.

Nothnagel's focus is on encouraging individuals and organizations to excel by increasing self-awareness, creating understanding of individual diversity in performance and results, enhancing influencing skills, and building high-performance leadership teams.

Nothnagel’s current research focus on three main areas: neuro-leadership (practical lessons that leaders can learn from neuroscience), cognitive decision-making, and emotional intelligence.

He works as a consultant and executive coach worldwide, including the Nordic countries, Germany, the United States, and Asia. His clients include companies such as ABB, Basware, Cargotec, Danfoss, Daimler, Fazer, Finnair, GE, Hewlett-Packard, HKScan, Michelin, Ruukki, Vaisala, and Yahoo.

Nothnagel is an Attorney at Law, Myers-Briggs Certified Interpreter, and Certified Emotional-Intelligence Practitioner.

Salin has extensive international experience in the museum, cultural, funding, university, and executive education sectors. She has expertise in building creative concepts and partnerships, developing private funding and business, and creating innovative approaches.

His research on the psychological aspects of strategic management has been published in leading international journals and won several international awards. He has taught and presented his research at leading universities like Harvard and INSEAD. 

Professor Vuori's research and teaching focus on how companies formulate and execute strategies. He has written two books with senior business executives on these topics. "Living Strategy" describes scenario-based strategy making in an ever-changing world. "Platform Strategy" describes how incumbent firms should and can renew themselves in the digital era. The books detail both the "hard" factors, such as technology and business models, and "soft" factors, such as people and psychology, influencing strategy and renewal.  

Professor Vuori works extensively with companies, often collaborating with a leading strategy consulting company. Vuori helps the client organization formulate and evaluate several strategic options in strategy formulation projects. He uses advanced psychological techniques to help leaders unleash their strategic creativity and overcome thinking myopias and personal biases. This approach is based on his cutting-edge international research, also described in the Platform Strategy. 

In strategy execution projects, Professor Vuori specializes in helping the client firm optimize the psychological engagement of the whole organization. He analyses the psychological impact of the intended strategy execution program and modifies it to maximally leverage the emotions of the organization's members for effectiveness.