Saija Kuusela, Chair
Saija Kuusela, Chair
Saija Kuusela was selected as Board Chair in May 2025. Kuusela has a Ph.D. in ecology and extensive expertise in forest biodiversity preservation and climate change mitigation. She worked for over 13 years as a project manager at the Finnish Environment Institute. She has experience in networking with researchers, other stakeholders, policy makers and the media. Kuusela is also professional author writing detective novels and short stories. In her spare time she loves to wander around in nature with her dog, meet with friends and meditate.
Staffan Schartner
Staffan Schartner
Omniplan's partner Staffan Schartner has been appointed adjunct professor in timber architecture at Linnaeus University. In addition to some teaching at various levels, his role includes participation in the research platform "Sustainable Timber Structures" and work on developing various national and international collaborations around the sustainable forestry and timber construction value chain.
Juhani Kairamo
Juhani Kairamo
Juhani is a current CCF certification Development Officer of Innofor Finland Ltd and a founder Board Member of 15 years' standing as Treasurer-Controller. As a forest owner Juhani has a special interest in combining economic and genuinely ecological forest management. In his spare time Juhani is a keen birdwatcher and amateur lepidopterist.
Arja Alikoivisto
Arja Alikoivisto, Board Member
Arja Alikoivisto is a forest owner; her educational background is M.Sc. in Economics and Master of Natural Resources. Before engaging in continuous cover forestry Arja had a long career at Nordea in different leadership positions. Arja wants to influence forest owners moving towards more sustainable forestry. Her special interest is how forest owners could gain more income by cultivating and collecting special natural products from continuously covered forest. Arja is a board member of the Finnish Continuous Cover Forest Association Silva ry. As a board member of the AEFC Arja wants to connect forest owners and sustainable businesses to produce long lasting ecological quality products. Forest is so much more than just wood.
Robbie Ekblom, Jr.
Robbie Ekblom, Jr., Board Member
Robbie has 11+ years of international experience across Asset Management Sales, Capital Raising, Business Development, Strategy and Consultation. In early 2022, Robbie founded a charity focused on forestry and ecological preservation in the Finnish capital area by the name of Suomen Metsä. Robbie was elected to the board of the AEFC to participate in a business development capacity, where he sits in the Organization & Business working group. Robbie is also involved with the internationalization strategy of the AEFC.
Markus Steén
Markus Steén, Board Member
Markus has a master in forest sciences. 2007 - 2019 he worked at Södra Skogsägarna in Sweden with forest management planning, IT development and business development. In 2019 Markus joined the then recently started company Plockhugget AB where he now serves as Chief Forester. Plockhugget is a forestry company that works only with close to nature forestry methods and has developed its own close to nature forestry certification system. Markus was elected to AEFC's board. He wants to develop an international forestry certification system that serves the forest's many natural values and at the same time has an attractive offer to forest owners. He is involved in the working group for the establishment of the international standard.
In Markus spare time he enjoys managing his family's forest with close to nature forestry methods and producing just as resource efficient as beautiful wedge cut floor boards.