Keynote 1:
Regulations and directives for the social sustainability and DEI in Europe
Elisa Bevilacqua, Senior sustainability technical manager, EFRAG, Belgium
Elisa joined EFRAG in September 2022 as senior sustainability technical manager. She currently leads the work on SME (VSME) and her focus on the sector standards is on banking and financial institutions. Elisa has 25 years' experience in the financial sector. In the past 15 years she focused on corporate social responsibility, green finance, ESG risks and sustainability reporting. Before joining EFRAG, Elisa was head of sustainable finance at the European Association of Cooperative Banks, where she held numerous positions since 2004. Prior to that, she worked at the European Parliament in Brussels and in the investment fund industry in Luxembourg.
Elisa is an honor graduate in Economics and Business from University La Sapienza, specialised in environmental economics. She holds a Master in Business Administration from Vlerick Business School. She is author of many articles and publications, the latest in 2022 is the co-authoring of the book European Cooperative Banks and Sustainability.
Keynote 2:
Accreditations for sustainability in SME: When and how should SMEs do this?
Tiina Partanen, Head of Sustainability and PMO, Foamit Group, Finland
Tiina is a dynamic sustainability and strategy leader with extensive experience in driving HSEQ, ESG, and corporate sustainability initiatives across international organizations. As Head of Sustainability & PMO at Foamit Group, Tiina has been instrumental in shaping sustainability roadmaps, implementing GRI reporting, LCA & EPD assessments, and EcoVadis evaluations, while also leading strategy execution and project management processes.With a strong background in quality, environmental, and health & safety management, she has held leadership roles at Foamit Group, Teknos Group, and Gustav Paulig Ltd, Finland, where they developed global sustainability frameworks, optimized operational efficiency, and spearheaded major improvement initiatives.
An expert in Lean Six Sigma (Black Belt) and ISO certifications, [Name] is passionate about driving impactful sustainability strategies, facilitating high-level workshops, and integrating ESG principles into business growth. Their experience in M&A projects and cross-border collaboration makes them a key player in aligning sustainability with corporate success.
Keynote 3:
Managing DEI-related challenges in smaller business: psychology perspective
Juha Simola, Psychologist & long-term entrepreneur, Finland
Juha Simola works as Study Psychologist at University of Vaasa. In his previous post he worked at a mental welfare association helping people with typically severe past mental issues to create themselves a meaningful life.
Juha graduated as Psychologist at the heydays of commercial internet bloom just before Millenium and got driven into internet and design business. His work history includes +20 years of various management and expert work within several industries company sizes varying from early phase startups to corporations. Majority of work has been international business and in addition to psychology his skills include e.g. business development, experience design and leadership.
Juha has also co-founded a startup company and run it for years. Failed with one business idea and succeeded with another, got loads of experiences relatedly. Related to DEI acknowledging the amount of determination peoples background has on their opportunities in life he considers all people equally respectable no matter of skills, positions or titles.
Keynote 4:
Best practices for DEI in SMEs, a global perspective for European SMEs
Chenthuran Jayton, Executive Director of Equity Labs, USA
Chenthuran Jayton, M.Sc. is 15 year practitioner in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) management and education. With B.Sc. in Political Science and a M.Sc. in Counseling, he started his work in DEI advocacy in education administration at several higher education institutions. Serving in a variety of roles including community director, director of cultural center and spiritual life, and program director, his last few roles involved him serving as the senior DEI official at institutions. His work included inclusive community building, intercultural and cross-cultural education, equitably policy design, and organizational culture assessment. Transitioning out of higher education, Chenthu served as the Executive Director of Equity Labs, a DEIJ consulting and upskilling organizations serving for-profit, non-profit, and governmental agencies of varying sizes and industries. In this role, he led the development of a full DEI upskilling curriculum; a first-of-its-kind DEI dashboard assessing organizational metrics at intrapersonal, interpersonal, epistemic, and institutional levels; and a personnel management strategy centering love as an ethic of practice. Chenthu is currently pursuing his doctoral education in Business Management, where his research focus is management systems that facilitate DEI advancement within organizations.