Meet the candidates for Ornamo’s Board 2026

Fourteen experienced design professionals are standing for Ornamo’s Board. Those interested in board work were invited to come forward on 16 September 2026, and the result is a wonderfully varied group: among them are design entrepreneurs, strategic designers, educators and researchers, with expertise ranging from knitwear to service design and from interior architecture to airline customer experience. A warm thank you to all the candidates!

Get to know the candidates below, along with what they want to influence in the design field and what kind of Ornamo they want to help build. The candidates are listed alphabetically by last name.

Xavier Blanc Baudriller

Throughout my career, I’ve striven to make design more impactful (first addressing the right issues, then tackling them as effectively and efficiently as possible).

Yet, having worked across a wide variety of sectors, geographies, and design fields (product, service, communication, architecture, policy), I’ve seen design stagnate or even regress as a strategic force.

My ambition in joining Ornamo’s board is to help design gain or regain its strategic seat at the table by influencing the way it is taught, practiced, valued, and bought and sold.

Ida Broms

I’m a designer who graduated in 2013 and Lead Designer at Agile Work. I’m currently deepening my management skills in Aalto University’s MBA programme. In our soon-to-be-published thesis, we study how the Team Finland network, which provides internationalisation services, could be developed to better suit the creative industries. In the design field, I want to influence how these services could support the sector, and how the sector itself could develop so that growth and internationalisation succeed better. I want us to shape the future of design together, sustainably and innovatively.

Mikko Helin

I’m a service designer and entrepreneur with long experience in client work and service business. I came to design through a career change, and I want to bring forward the perspective of newer designers too. In Ornamo’s Designakatemia programme, I worked with young people to improve school wellbeing and participation. I want to strengthen the link between design and working life, support designers’ employment and entrepreneurship, and make the value of design visible outside the field as well. On the board, I want to build an open Ornamo that brings together designers from different backgrounds and strengthens the shared voice of the field.

David Kondo

My route into design was through business. For 15 years I’ve championed it from the client side at six global airlines, including Finnair, where I led design development of the AirLounge business class and lounges. Today my consultancy Konsidered helps aviation, rail and hospitality brands design better experiences.

Japanese, Canadian and Australian, I’ve lived and worked around the world, with Finland home base for almost a decade. On Ornamo’s board I’d bring that lens to helping members win bigger clients, at home and abroad, and to showing buyers why design deserves a seat at the table.

Ira Laitakari

I’m an industrial and strategic designer. My career has spanned the private and public sectors and NGOs, from small workplaces to multinational organisations. As a designer, I have worked on product development, customer experience, customer value, services and organisational processes. Today my focus is on strategic and business design. I want to continue this work as a bridge-builder for Ornamo: showing in a practical and understandable way how design improves organisations’ operations, decision-making and customer value, and strengthening its place as a natural part of expertise in working life.

Anna-Mari Leppisaari

I’m a knitwear designer and Lecturer in Textile Design at Aalto University. My background is in international industrial textile design, and alongside teaching I actively work on my own design projects and interdisciplinary collaborations that bring together, for example, new sustainable materials and seamless knitting technology. On Ornamo’s board, I would like to bring in perspectives from education, strengthen collaboration between education and working life, and promote the appreciation and role of design in society. I would like to build an international, forward-looking community that connects different actors.

Miia Liesegang

I’m Miia Liesegang, a versatile creative professional, design entrepreneur and visual artist. I have previously served two terms on Ornamo’s board, and now I want to put my experience to work for our community once again.

I’m standing as a candidate because I especially want to bring the perspective of small design businesses to the board, as well as the voice of members working outside the Helsinki metropolitan area.

The issues that matter most to me are designers’ livelihoods, the conditions for entrepreneurship, and the commercial and international potential of Finnish design expertise.

Marjut Nousiainen

I’m a versatile interior architect, furniture designer and entrepreneur. Since 2012, I have worked extensively on spatial and furniture design projects in Finland and Estonia.

My special area of expertise is designing restorative environments that support wellbeing, and I have also written a book on the subject.

For the past two years, I helped promote the circular economy as a researcher and designer in Tampere University’s Kiertopuu project.

I want to join Ornamo’s board to offer my expertise, skills and hands-on experience as a designer for our common benefit.

Sari Perttunen

I am Sari Perttunen, Chief Creative Officer of an international children’s apparel brand, designer, and EMBA graduate. I have over 20 years of experience in international design, brand building, strategy, and business development. My expertise combines hands-on product design, consumer insight, sustainability, an international perspective, and commercial thinking. I’ve also worked as a design entrepreneur. I would bring experience in international brand building, design, and strategic leadership, while helping strengthen designers’ competitiveness and impact in a rapidly changing world.

Anna Pyyluoma

I’m a strategic designer and transformation designer, and the founder of Empact. My background is in textile and surface design, jewellery and silver design, and the humanities. I have worked in service design for over ten years in the public sector, at a think tank, at a design agency and in IT consulting. I want design to be recognised as a way to lead change towards a socially and ecologically sustainable society. On the board, I want to develop an Ornamo that brings design professionals together and supports its members in building sustainable and resilient businesses.

Mira Rahkonen

I’m Mira Rahkonen, a design and customer experience expert, entrepreneur and host of the Kokemusmakupalat podcast. I have 30 years of experience in hands-on design work, service development and commercialising design business. With results. My company Kokokuva drives brand growth and adoption through strategic experience design. Making use of international networks, developing skills and sharing knowledge are central to my work as a developer of international brands, trainer, facilitator and conversation starter.

Niko Räty

AI is shaking up our field, but I believe it will lift human-made creative work to a new level of value, whatever one thinks of artificial intelligence. For the value of IP to be understood more widely, I would like Ornamo to open up more dialogue beyond the design field. That’s also why I started the Muodosta tulevaisuus podcast. I’m a designer, an Aalto Creative Sustainability alumnus and a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. I served on Ornamo’s board in 2019–22 (as vice chair in my final year). Back then we focused on sustainability and young designers. Now it’s time for a new phase, without forgetting these underlying themes.

Michelle Sahal Estimé

I’m a service designer and strategic designer, and the founder of Empact. I have over 15 years of experience internationally and in Finland, from the UN, NGOs, higher education institutions and IT consulting. I have taught inclusive design in Finland, Kenya and Malawi. I want design to be recognised as a way to build an equal society and services that reach everyone. On the board, I want to develop an internationally networked Ornamo that supports its members’ businesses and strengthens designers’ ability to work in an increasingly diverse society.

Outi Ugas

I’m Outi Ugas, a cognitive scientist (MA) and service designer. I work as Chief Operating Officer at Hiilipörssi Oy. For the past 15 years, I have worked where sustainability and service design meet, with clients across many industries. I have more than 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur.

I want to strengthen designers’ role as drivers of the sustainability transition, and the field’s importance in building a future-proof society. Let’s make designers’ voices heard and put their expertise to use! I want to develop Ornamo into an even stronger advocate and sparring partner that gives members concrete support and tools.

Member voting will open later, and we will share more information separately.