They flock around him, the bunch of techies, mostly men. Knowledgeable, well-read, in the middle of the industry. He has just given a presentation at HOPE, in the middle of Norrköping's old industrial quarter, and lunch salads are served out to mingling engineers and researchers.
This is one of the GIVE project's many meetings, this time with sustainable properties as the focus. Jani-Mikael Kuusisto is flown in from Finland to present how his Halia heater can be integrated into furniture, walls and floors so that the room as a whole is perceived as warmer and energy can be saved.
But are you more into the business side than the technology?
-Technology has always interested me, but when I had to choose between it and business, it had to be the latter.
How is it that?
-I noticed quite soon, when I got one of my first jobs at a big tech company, that I wasn't satisfied with just being a cog in a big machine. Instead, I wanted to constantly try to develop and optimize structure and organization, to find smart innovations with energy efficiency as a focus. Later in life, when, in connection with the birth of one of my daughters, my employer notified me of layoffs, the worlds collided and I realized that I am and will remain an entrepreneur. A difficult time followed, but it was also decisive in many ways.
What happened?
-I was on business trips up to 250 days a year for a long time. Starting a new business takes time and commitment. And immensely enjoyed being able to work a little more freely. But it also had its price. For example, my marriage failed. It was extremely tough, and somewhere I understood what is important in life going forward - my children, sauna and then my passion for music.
Do you have a solid vinyl collection at home?
-Yes, there is everything from jazz to rap, and it was also these two genres that I started listening to as a child. Now my children help me find new inspiration. It's great fun and valuable to have that kind of relationship with them.
Besides crisis insights, as the vast majority of us can recognize, what are your biggest driving forces?
-I have a true workaholic, and I guess I learned from childhood that you do what is right for you. Both my mother and father were hard workers, and then I had an inherent feeling that something had to be done. We need to solve the climate and energy consumption challenge. And that, combined with passion for the job, means that I put a lot of hours into my work, well...
He was born in Tammersfors, Finland. As a child, he moved with his family to the United States. The father had obtained a position at a large company and Kuusisto started at the age of seven in an English-speaking school.
-I didn't know a word of the language, but I learned quickly. And daily life was very different over there, with a completely different way of communicating. It has affected me.
How?
- For example, it has helped me to be open and comfortable in contexts like this. He gestures with his hand over the people in the room.
-In the States, you learn to present yourself and your place without being ashamed or afraid. The social is much more accessible in so many ways. And I can say that it was difficult to return to my homeland as a teenager. It was almost a shock to land in such a closed society again.
And yet you have remained?
- Yes, apparently life wanted it to... And although I have also worked for longer periods in Portugal and Canada, Finland has gradually come to feel like home again.
And now your latest is Warming Surfaces, tell me more!
-It's really about heating a limited surface, which makes the overall perceived temperature in the room feel higher. In Europe, 65 per cent of energy consumption is spent on heating properties, so it may seem surprising that more people are not working to find alternative solutions there.
Warming Surfaces is an energy-efficient way to make a big difference out there. And women in particular often react positively. Many offices are temperature-controlled to suit men's needs, while 70 per cent of European women state that they work in premises that they feel are too cold. So there is a lot to do there…
Read more about The Warming Surfaces Company here
ANNA VALENTIN
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