Programme Overview – Northern Power Business Forum

Matti Malkamäki

Matti Malkamäki, a hydrogen business specialist and cleantech entrepreneur of over 20 years, is dedicated to decarbonizing the industry through his role as co-founder and Chairman of Hycamite. Committed to sustainability, Matti has played a key role in adopting clean energy technologies and has held positions in several influential groups related to hydrogen and decarbonization. He is a sought-after speaker on cleantech and has written numerous articles on this topic. With extensive experience in power generation and cleantech, Matti drives the transition to a low-carbon, high-energy-efficient economy through Hycamite’s revolutionary methane-splitting technology that can both decarbonize industry using natural gas and provide same time high-quality solid carbon products like graphite.

Jukka Hietanen

Jukka Hietanen works as a Project Director at Gasgrid and leads the Nordic Hydrogen Route (NHR) hydrogen infrastructure consortium project together with Nordion Energi’s counterparty. Jukka has over 15 years of experience in the development of renewable energy projects at St1 and Neste. During his career, Jukka has led projects in Nordic countries and Morocco, and for the past eight years has worked with hydrogen and power-to-X projects.

Heli Virkki

Heli Virkki works as Head of Hydrogen Valley and Customer Project Development at Gasgrid Vetyverkot Oy. She is responsible for regional stakeholder collaboration with municipalities along the planned route for the national hydrogen infrastructure as well as future hydrogen market participants, supporting the ongoing development of the Finnish and Baltic Sea region hydrogen market. Heli has over 20 years of experience within building new value chains as well as leading large consortia projects within chemicals industry and energy sector.

Jens Rauhut

Jens Rauhut has been with Bosch’s electrolysis activities since 2021, initially at the Corporate Strategy Department and later developing the EU customer base for the Business Unit Electrolysis Technology & Services.
Prior to that, he gained experience in various positions at Bosch, including in finance, project management, and establishing business in emerging markets.

Steffen Flede

Steffen Flade is Head of Technology at H2FLY, a leader in hydrogen-electric aviation based in Stuttgart, Germany. He guides the company’s technology roadmap, driving hydrogen propulsion systems toward commercial aviation applications.

A founding member of H2FLY in 2015, Steffen has been instrumental in the company’s evolution from pioneering research to industrial scale-up. He led the engineering of H2FLY’s proprietary H2F-175 fuel cell system that was successfully demonstrated in Joby Aviation’s vertical take-off and landing aircraft in 2024. Prior to co-founding H2FLY, he worked at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he designed and integrated fuel cell propulsion systems for the Antares DLR-H2 and the HY4 aircraft.

Throughout his career, Steffen has focused on translating hydrogen technology from laboratory concepts into flight-ready systems—advancing emission-free aviation from experimental demonstrations to commercial viability.

Steffen holds a degree in Mechatronics from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, with a focus on electrical drives and electrochemical energy conversion.

Veera Tapionkaski

Veera Tapionkaski is the CEO and founder of Zun-H, a University of Oulu spin-off dedicated to solar hydrogen technology. As a materials physicist turned into an entrepreneur, Veera leads a young team that believes the Sun Age is the next chapter in our energy story — an era where clean hydrogen is produced directly from sunlight and water, without electricity or fossil fuels.

Zun-H is building technology for a truly off-grid and self-sustaining energy future, welcoming hydrogen from the Sun, anywhere on Earth.

Thorsten Herbert

I am a passionate and experienced expert in hydrogen and fuel cell technology, with over two decades of experience spanning the automotive industry, public sector, and both the German and Norwegian hydrogen industries.

With a Mechanical Engineering degree from TU Darmstadt and a Master of Science in Renewable Energy from HAW Hamburg, I have dedicated my career to advancing hydrogen and fuel cell technology. From working on fuel cell propulsion systems at GM Powertrain to shaping market development and public affairs at Nel Hydrogen, I have built a deep understanding of the industry’s technical, regulatory, and commercial landscape. My extensive experience at NOW GmbH, Germany’s main funding body for alternative fuels, further strengthens my ability to bridge the gap between policy, industry, and innovation.

These roles equipped me with a robust technical background, strategic leadership skills, and professional communication expertise, which I am now happy to share with my clients.

Beyond my advisory work, I am actively involved in key industry groups, including my Chairmanship of the German-Norwegian Working Group on Hydrogen facilitated by the German-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce and an Advisory Board seat at the Saxonian Hydrogen Network HZwo in Germany. These engagements allow me to contribute to the ongoing development of the global hydrogen economy and drive forward the adoption of clean energy solutions.