clic innovation

New additions to CLIC staff: Meet Tiina and Kim

Tiina Härkäsalmi and Kim Tervonen started at CLIC in January. Get to know Tiina and Kim!

Tiina Härkäsalmi started at CLIC on 2 January as Project Specialist, Bioeconomy.

Get introduced to Tiina:

“My name is Tiina Härkäsalmi and I am a Doctor of Arts (PhD) by Aalto University in the field of sustainable design and have been working as a researcher, educator, and consultant. My main interests are in RDI of a strategic whole systems approach for circular bioeconomy. In recent years, I have been committed to material-driven design research and product development, added with high enthusiasm for more sustainable material use for multiple lifecycles. The main focus has been on textiles and wood-based cellulosic materials and related technological development through cross-disciplinary collaboration at Aalto University and in the private sector as an expert consultant (e.g. Spinnova, Lumir, and Fortum/Bio2X). Also, I have been in different roles in several projects including preparations of project applications, administrative responsibilities, and managing collaboration between national and international companies and research organisations.

My work and hobbies have included a lot of ‘hands-on’ material experiments and early phase prototyping on emerging technologies and materials, and my artefacts have been displayed in various exhibitions in Finland and abroad. Also, living in an old wooden house means that different handicrafts and manual skills are necessary. I enjoy renovating the house (and the summer cottage), gardening perennials and useful plants, and snow work in winter is good everyday exercise. I relax best in the woods.”

Kim Tervonen started at CLIC on 16 January as RDI manager in Energy Systems.

Get introduced to Kim:

“The last four years I have been working in Langh Tech Oy Ab, first two years as a design engineer and then as a product manager, taking care of the products in our portfolio, managing the development processes around new innovations and creating the long-term strategical lines for the company. To many of you who might be hearing about Langh Tech the first time, it is a green tech company designing and manufacturing various systems for environmental protection, mainly for marine market. Among the products and solutions provided by Langh Tech, there are for example exhaust gas cleaning systems, water treatment, ballast water management systems and the latest innovation under development, carbon capture system for commercial vessels. Other companies in the industry are for example Wärtsilä, Valmet, Alfa-Laval and Yara, just to mention few.

Before my journey in Langh Tech, I did work in Wärtsilä in product management of large bore four-stroke engines, as a project engineer in Protopaja Oy which is a manufacturer of high precision sheet metal parts, and the last but not the least, alongside my engineering studies in Turku University of Applied Sciences, I worked over three years as a salesman in XXL Finland, selling hiking equipment, skies, bicycles and hunting rifles for other outdoor enthusiasts.

From the last part of my career introduction, you may already guess that some of my spare time is spent outdoors. For me that means hiking or trekking with my friends and family, going rock climbing, caving or scuba diving, or just having a long walk in the woods with my dogs. The time what is left from these activities, work and family life, I spend renovating our house or designing and building furniture and other gadgets meant for household applications.

To wrap everything up: I am a technically oriented engineer who enjoys solving puzzles found in energy, environment and bioeconomy related topics. System engineering, product development, mechanical design and outside of the box -thinking are my most tested abilities, but thanks to my previous employments, I have been pressure tested with a wide range of tasks and assignments along the road. Due to the wide variety of responsibilities and experiences gained so far, I am starting to have a clue of how, why and where the wheels of industries are turning nowadays. And when this picture has grown stronger, I have come to realise that in order to preserve our dearest things and most valuable assets, I need to participate in guiding these wheels into the better track and to do my part in developing the green energy systems and industries and future-looking business models.”