Speakers

Sirli Sipp Kulli 
Geological Survey of Estonia

Sirli has been the Director of the Estonian Geological Survey since 2020. She has a Master's Degree from the Tallinn University of Technology as an engineer in chemical technology. Sirli has worked as a researcher at the Tallinn University of Technology and in the private sector (Viru Keemia Grupp, BiotaTec LLC). 

Tapani Veistola 
The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation

Tapani is Executive Director in Suomen luonnonsuojeluliitto (SLL, The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation). It is the oldest and biggest environmental non-governmental organisation in Finland. It has 15 regional offices and 149 local clubs covering the whole of Finland. Veistola is a candidate of humanities from Turku University. Before SLL, he was Executive Director in BirdLife Finland (1989-96). He has worked in SLL since 1997, for example, with many big projects (Natura 2000, METSO forest conservation program), as senior advisor and Head of Environmental Policy Unit. He has experience in mining issues, for example, revisions of legislation and the most famous Finnish conflict cases.

Pamela Lesser 
Lapland University Consortium

Pamela is a senior expert with the Research, Development and Innovation Services unit at the Lapland University Consortium. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. For the past 11 years, she has been a researcher within the Arctic Governance Research Group at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, where she focused on sustainable mining practices in the north, and in particular, the social licence to operate (SLO) concept. Concurrent with her work as a researcher, Pamela was the Regional Lead at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), a global mining standard, in charge of raising awareness of IRMA within Brussels policy circles. 

Rauno Sairinen
University of Eastern Finland

Rauno is a Professor of Environmental Policy and the Director of the RESOURCE Research Community (Sustainable Resource Society: Circular Economy, Energy, and Raw Materials) at the University of Eastern Finland. His primary research focuses on environmental and natural resource governance, the sustainability of mining, sustainability transitions, and social impact assessment.

Juha Kaija 
Geological Survey of Finland

Juha , M.Sc, (geology) Senior specialist at GTK´s Energy and Construction Solutions unit. Juha joined the Geological Survey of Finland in 1995 as a research scientist in the Nuclear Waste Disposal Research unit. He contributed to groundwater research and uranium migration studies in GTK's first EU project, the Palmottu project. Since 2005, he has managed multiple EU-funded projects spanning remediation, groundwater management, CRM exploration, mineral processing, geodatabases, mineral policy, and mining regions. With a 60% success rate in EU proposals, he has helped secure €95 million in research funding through collaborations with European and international research teams. Currently, he coordinates Horizon Europe project UNDERCOVER (Unified Novel Deep Exploration for Critical Ore Discovery) and leads a work package in the Horizon Europe project EIS (Exploration Information System). He also leads GTK's team in the EGT-TWINN project

Toni Eerola
Geological Survey of Finland

Toni is a geologist (Ph.D.) with decades of experience in mineral exploration, geological mapping, and research in public institutions and private companies in Finland and abroad. He graduated as a geologist at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 1992 and earned his PhD at the University of Helsinki in 2002. He is a PhD student in environmental policy at the University of Eastern Finland. Since 2012, he has worked at the Mineral Intelligence Group of the Mineral Economic Solutions Unit of the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK). His tasks are related to social license to operate, corporate social responsibility, environmental and social governance of the mining industry and circular economy. He has collaborated with the development of stakeholder engagement and guidance for responsible mineral exploration in Finland. He has participated in Horizon-funded EU projects ORAMA, MIREU and NEXT and is currently involved with EXCEED, S-341, AVANTIS and CIRAN, beyond other national and Nordic projects. 

Erki Peegel
Geological Survey of Estonia

Erki is a strategic communication advisor at the Geological Survey of Estonia, where he leads engagement around phosphate exploration and related resource studies. With a background in high-level public and corporate communications—including roles at Eesti Energia, Enterprise Estonia, and the Ministry of Finance—he brings valuable expertise in building public trust in complex projects. At SLO Tallinn 2025, Peegel highlights how transparent, well-planned communication is key to earning social licence in geological exploration.

Triin Vihalemm
University of Tartu

Triin is a leading Estonian sociologist and Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Tartu. Her research focuses on collective identity, ethnic relations, and communication in transitional societies—making her a vital voice in discussions around social acceptance and trust in resource exploration. With experience advising public institutions on integration and strategic communication, she brings a critical perspective to how societal narratives shape public responses to complex initiatives.

Juha M. Kotilainen
University of Eastern Lapland

Juha is a Postdoctoral Researcher in environmental policy at the University of Eastern Finland. His research focuses on the collaborative governance of natural resources—addressing challenges that no single actor or sector can solve alone. He is currently working on topics such as multilevel governance of critical raw materials, governance of battery industry value chains, water stewardship, community benefit agreements, and the social acceptance of the green transition.

Jussi Lähde 
Latitude 66 Cobalt Oy

Jussi has worked since 2017 in Latitude 66 Cobalt Oy, company specialized in exploration and mine development of critical technology minerals and gold. Latitude 66 Cobalt is part of ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) listed Latitude 66.

Jussi has professional background in politics (as former spokesperson for the president of Finland and political commnetetor), journalism (editor in chief, columnist and live radio host, development director in TV-channel and Nordic Film&TV-production company) and corporate communications (Peab).

Jussi is a public figure in Finland and has publicly promoted mining tax/royalty, voluntary no-go and buffer zones for exploration companies and the security of supply chains of critical minerals for EU and NATO defense production.

Perttu Mikkola
Geological Survey of Finland

Perttu has been working for the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) for 25 years. Geologically, he grew up in the bedrock mapping department of GTK, where he participated first as a summer trainee, later as a geologist and project manager in projects targeting various areas in East and Central Finland. Bedrock mapping later transformed to areal ore potential evaluation projects. The scope widened to a European and international one as Mikkola first coordinated H2020-project ORAMA in 2017–2019 and has since participated in GTK's international projects. In addition to purely geological work or project coordination, he has also been variably involved in designing and developing GTK's databases and applications for handling and storing primary geological data.

Nike Luodes
Geological Survey of Finland

Nike has a background as a construction engineer, with a PhD in environmental geoengineering in 2005. Has worked in the field of natural stone and aggregates participating also in standardization activities at national and European level. Work experience included management of a testing laboratory, program coordination in a regional development company and research and project coordination in GTK. Within GTK land use management and mining aspects have been of increasing interest and have been addressed in several projects as Minland, Ciran and S34I.

Gregory Poelzer 
Luleå University of Technology

 Gregory is an Associate Senior Lecturer at Luleå University of Technology. For the past ten years, Poelzer has focused his research on the relationship between mining companies and communities. He has been involved in case studies across Europe and Canada that investigate Social License to Operate and has written on its conceptual development. In addition, his research looks at legitimacy, particularly the procedural and value factors that affect trust. This work includes comparative analysis at the international, national, and local levels – looking at the relationship between government, industry, and society. He has presented his research at multiple international conferences, participated in both academic and industry panels, and research workshops related to Social License to Operate.

Leena Suopajärvi

University of Lapland

Soc. Dr. Leena works as a University Lecturer in environmental sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the University of Lapland, and she is an adjunct professor in the Technical Faculty of Oulu University. She has studied large environmental projects (hydropower construction, mines) in northern Finland. Her current research themes are focused on local people's perceptions of the social impacts of mining, social license to operate, and social sustainability in the context of the mineral sector.

Sam Whittlesey
LGI Sustainable Innovation

Sam is a Sustainability Consultant at LGI Sustainable Innovation, where he works to upscale climate-smart technologies. He conducts in-depth social and environmental impact assessments, provides strategic assessments of public policies, and develops circular business models for industry. He is active in numerous European funded research and innovation projects and has focused on mineral extraction and climate change adaptation in Africa. Prior to joining LGI, Sam held policy research positions at the OECD, Opendatasoft, and the New York City Council. He has degrees in Governance and Social Sciences from Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris.