Members of the board
Paula Ruohoranta
Chairman of the Board
Paula has worked with Fintech Finland since the organization was founded; first as a UK ambassador whilst living in London, and after returning to Finland she was selected to the board and in January 2022 she became the chairperson. She has almost two decades of experience from the financial industry across Europe, working with banks and Fintechs alike. Paula is passionate about scaling and has mentored growth companies big and small, through accelerators such as Virgin Startup and London City Launch Lab.
Kirsi Suopelto
Board Member
Kirsi has 20+ years experience from financial services, both legal and commercial roles. Currently, Kirsi coordinates digital finance initiatives at Finance Finland. Additionally, she runs her own consultancy business focusing on support and advice in business development, finance and legal matters for start up and scale up businesses.
Niko Karhapää
Board Member
Niko has been a member of the Fintech Finland board since 2020. His interest is focused on how can financial services organisations make the right strategic choices and build the right operating models to succeed in the global disruption ongoing in the industry. Currently Niko is working with strategy & operations at MobilePay and was previously a management consultant for financial services clients at PwC. At 30 years, Niko is the junior of the board and his hobbies include running, studying law (University of Helsinki), music, drawing and reading.
Nina Torkkel
Board Member
Nina is a finance & IT geek. Her special expertise is strong knowledge of the financial industry and taking advantage of digitalisation. Nina is especially keen on efficient use of automatization and digitalization in order to create smooth customer experiences as well as profitable business. She was selected to the board of Fintech Finland in June 2020.
Miikka Pakkanen
Board Member
Miikka is an experienced digital transformation professional in financial technology with over 30 years in software business. He has a strong background in banking, business innovation, business and technology transformation and mobile technology. Currently Miikka is leading business operations at Boogie Software, with focus on people driven financial solutions.
Noora Monte
Board Member
Noora has a background in very hands on Banking and Accounting. Her strength is simplyfying things in such a way that customers don't need to think or learn. Tech is here to make our life easier.
Noora is currently working in brokering business and is in charge of bank relationships. Noora was elected to FinFin board in 2021.
Esa Mäkeläinen
Board Member
Esa has been fintech software entrepreneur for 20+ years. Before founding his own company (www.valuatum.com) he has worked in investment banking (equity analysis, sell-side, Nordea Bank), in credit-risk (corporate banking, Nordea Bank) and in an industrial company (Rettig/Marli). Valuatum focuses on financial analysis models mainly in coprorate credit-risk rating (estimating the probability of default with AI (Artificial Intelligence) models like gradient boosting (XGBoost)