Meet the candidates for Ornamo’s board election

Three new board members will be elected at Ornamo’s autumn meeting to replace those whose terms are ending. Get to know the candidates and cast your vote – electronic voting starts on Monday, November 3, 2025!

This autumn’s board elections will determine the members of Ornamo’s board for the 2026–2027 term. Seven Ornamo members registered as candidates for the Ornamo board by the deadline: Helena Aalto, Angelos Arnis, Juha Kronqvist, Riikka Manninen, Marjut Nousiainen, Sari Perttunen, Visa Rauta, and Raija Siikamäki.

Get to know Ornamo’s Board ’25

Check your e-mail to get a link for eVoting.

Candidates for the board

Helena Aalto
Interior Architect SIO

My name is Helena Aalto, interior architect, graduate of the Lahti Institute of Design and the University of Art and Design Helsinki.

My work history has focused heavily on the design of commercial spaces, but I have also worked alongside my colleagues in sales. 

Influencing has always been in my blood, and in recent years I have been actively involved in promoting common causes on the board of the Finnish Association of Interior Architects (SIO) and will soon complete my first term on the board of Ornamo. 

I am standing for re-election to Ornamo’s board because I want to ensure that interior architects continue to have a strong voice in our broad design community.

Read more about Helena on her LinkedIn profile!

Angelos Arnis 
Strategic Designer, Mesa Design Strategy

I’m inspired to be part of the Ornamo board to address our interconnected climate and social crises through design. My focus centers on how design can counter current obstacles that hinder our response to environmental challenges.

I believe we need collaborative approaches beyond technological solutions (organizing in communities that model better sense-making). Design education must evolve from creating specialized workers to fostering critical thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Through the Ornamo’s Responsible Design Manifesto, I’ve helped to pave the way for designers to become better stewards of their profession and the planet. I want to expand this vision in a way that every Ornamo initiative should consider its role in building collective resilience and participation.

My commitment is to transform how we learn, communicate, and organize as designers, with approaches that address the root problems of our times.

Read more about Angelos on his website!

Juha Kronqvist
Principal Designer & Partner, Hellon

For the past 15 years, I have worked at the intersection of strategy, design, and emerging technologies. I’ve helped organisations including UNICEF, Volkswagen, the Finnish Government, LähiTapiola, and the City of Helsinki turn complex challenges into outcomes people feel in daily life. I teach, mentor, and lead teams exploring what design can be in an age of AI and uncertainty.

I believe Finnish design can lead the next transformation, more value-driven, more sustainable, and firmly human-centred. On Ornamo’s board, I want to help set a clear shared vision, clarifying our direction and purpose in a time of change. I believe Finnish designers should lead the AI transformation using technology responsibly, by amplifying human insight and creativity, and show how design create meaningful impact. I want to support their professional growth by offering visionary leadership and supporting community building.

Read more about Juha on his LinkedIn profile!

Riikka Manninen
Adviser, Workplaces and Sustainability, Senaatti-kiinteistöt

Designers have an exceptional opportunity to influence the realization of the sustainability transformation. However, success requires major improvements in know-how, a focus on the most effective measures, and putting effort into communication.

I am a designer specialized in sustainability (MA), an interior architect (SIO), and a foresight expert currently finalising my master’s thesis (MSSc). I work as an adviser for workplace and service design, and environmental responsibility at Senate Properties. The main emphasis of my sustainability work has been on low-carbon solutions and the circular economy.

Throughout my career, I have focused on the urgently needed sustainability transition of the real estate and construction sector. My career path has included campus development, research, entrepreneurship, lecturing, and co-creating strategies to accelerate change.

Ornamo plays a crucial role in showing the way forward and supporting its members in times of change. There is strength in community – but it is also essential to strive for cooperation, as the challenges of our time cannot be solved in silos.

Read more about Riikka on her LinkedIn profile!

Marjut Nousiainen
Interior Architect SIO and Furniture Designer, Design Studio Marjut Nousiainen

I am a versatile creative professional, interior architect, and furniture designer.

I studied in both Finland and Estonia and graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 2011. I run my own design agency, Design Studio Marjut Nousiainen, and work on a wide range of interior and furniture design projects in Finland and Estonia. My main focus is on public space design and furniture design.

My particular interest and area of expertise is restorative (well-being-supporting) environmental design, on which I also wrote a book in 2014.

I am currently also working as a researcher in the Kiertopuu project at the University of Tampere, where I design new furniture and other products from side stream materials from the wood products industry.

I want to join the board to highlight and offer my expertise on current issues that are important to me, such as restorative design and the circular economy.

Read more about Marjut on her website!

Visa Rauta
Global design head, KONE

I am Head of KONE’s global design team across Finland, China, and India, as well as part of KONE’s R&D Leadership Team, bringing broad experience in leading multinational teams with a Finnish brand foundation.

With over 25 years of full-time experience in the Finnish design field, spanning two decades in-house and over five years at a design agency, I have gained exceptionally wide-ranging expertise across digital, physical, and print design, earning numerous patents and awards.

I believe designers have both the opportunity and the responsibility to shape a more sustainable and equal future. In Ornamo’s board, I aim to strengthen the role of design in Finland’s competitiveness while promoting equality for all design and art professionals.

Read more about Visa on his LinkedIn profile!

Raija Siikamäki
Entrepreneur, Formconcrete

I am standing for election as a member of Ornamo’s board because I want to contribute my knowledge and skills, accumulated over many years, to Ornamo and its members. I believe that designers represent an important professional group, both in the chain of creating and consuming responsible products and services and in making responsibility a natural part of our lifestyle. In addition, it is important for the future of the profession to create new business and entrepreneurial activity in our country: we represent a creative field, and I see its importance growing as we seek solutions to the major challenges of our time and our country.

I hold a Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Art and Design Helsinki and an MBA from Kingston University in London, UK. The research work and theses related to these studies are linked to sustainable development topics: my doctoral thesis was on the development of a European glass recycling system and my MBA thesis was on the social responsibility of design companies.

I have worked as a researcher and teacher at a university (TAIK) and as a research manager and product manager responsible for product development and business operations at a listed design company. I am currently an entrepreneur, running a company that combines design and architecture expertise, whose business is based on the ownership of technology and design IPR. I have been able to follow the latest trends in design-related innovation and business as an evaluator and project mentor for the EU’s WORTH program in 2019-2025 and as a peer reviewer for TAIKE in 2023-2024.

Read more about Raija on her LinkedIn profile!

Formconcrete