Career Journeys

Name: Sofia Montalvão
Job title/position and company’s name: Product Stewardship Business Borealis Polymers Oy (part of Borealis AG)
Education: Ph.D. Pharmacology – Centre for Drug Research, University of Helsinki, Finland/ M .Sc. Biological Engineering – University of Minho, Portugal

1. What was your dream job as a child? What led you to your school of choice?

Dream Job as a child was a Flight Steward – dream to fly and experience new things. I have had always interest in searching a balance between passions: science, health, environment and safety. During my studies, I did not heard a lot about the path of Regulatory Affairs or Product Stewardship, also because it was a relatively new term and area. However, throughout the years, I kept learning and exploring more and more about it. I’ve decided that would be a great career to carry on, combined with my passions. On Product Stewardship, we are mainly responsible to manage the health, safety and environmental aspects of products throughout their lifecycle and across the value chain in order to prevent or minimize negative impacts and maximize value.

2. What does your company do/manufacture? What kind of innovations is your company working on?

Borealis is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions, being also a European market leader in base chemicals and the mechanical recycling of plastics. Life demands progress and therefore Borealis is always innovating for a more sustainable living. The strategy for the following years include the transformation to a circular economy and the creation of an even more customer-centric organization that adds value on a global scale.

3. What are you most excited about at your job?

As a regulatory expert I have to be in contact with many parts of the business, working with a diverse group of stakeholders from different countries and departments, but all collaborating for a common goal. In such a dynamic role – which involves a mix of science, law and business – challenges on adaptability and strategic thinking skills are put to test every day, which is exciting! Also, I am constantly learning and expanding my knowledge from a product safety perspective and wider business perspective.

Name: Saeed Mardani
Job title/position and company’s name: Lead Engineer, Borealis Polymers Oy
Education: Doctor of Science, Chemical engineering, Aalto University, Finland Master of Science, Chemical and process engineering, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland Bachelor’s degree, Chemical engineering, Azad University, Iran

1. What was your dream job as a child? What led you to your school of choice?

I grew up in Shiraz, Iran. It is a historical city with mild weather and a great agriculture. During the last century, by exploration of the oil in Iran, the city transformed to an industrial hub. Refineries and petrochemical plants were built around it and changed the appearance of the city. In my younger ages, I was looking at those plants, and I was hoping to understand what is happening in the massive vessels and equipment. So, I applied to the school of chemical engineering and it was the start of my career life as chemical engineer.

2. What does your company do/manufacture? What kind of innovations is your company working on?

Borealis is in petrochemicals business. The main products are polyolefins (publicly known as plastics), base chemicals, fertilizers, melamine and technical nitrogen products. We consider polyethylene and polypropylene as the main company products. In Borealis, we are committed at development of sustainable processes for manufacturing polyolefins. Some examples are continuous efforts for reduction of the carbon footprints in the polyolefin manufacturing processes, development of polyolefin recycling processes, and optimization of the manufacturing processes.

3. What are you most excited about at your job?

In Borealis, we are producing petrochemicals. Moreover, we develop the manufacturing processes. In my role in the company, it is very exciting to work as a part of a large research and development group to improve the manufacturing processes.

Name: Antti Hassinen
Job title/position and company’s name: Technical Support and Product Development Manager, Exel Composites Plc.
Education: Master of Philosophy (University of Eastern Finland, Chemistry), Doctor of Chemistry, University of Ghent

1. What was your dream job as a child? What led you to your school of choice?

During upper and high school, I became strongly interested in chemistry and through this I ended up studying chemistry at the University of Joensuu. During my master’s studies, I found that I was particularly interested in making real products and services for consumers. I aimed to pursue a career in industry after the a master’s degree but my lack of work experience made it difficult to get the first job in industry. After 6months of applying different jobs in Finland and Europe, I found myself in Belgium; I received my PhD in chemistry from the University of Ghent and during these years I used my time to build also a better network and connections to industry. We moved from Belgium back to Finland in 2013 and at that time I was able to start my career in the industry with Exel Composites Plc.

2. What does your company do/manufacture? What kind of innovations is your company working on?

Exel Composites Plc designs, manufactures and markets fiber-reinforced plastic products (= composites) and solutions for demanding industrial applications – our product range is very wide – we manufacture profile, pipe and laminate products for the energy and electrical industries, to the construction and paper industries and to the sports and maintenance industries. I started my career in the product development team as a project manager for our machine industry segment and I am currently the product development and technical support manager for the business unit of Finland. I work especially with solutions for the construction and electrical industries. Composites makes possible to design and manufacture cutting edge innovative solutions – they can for example replace conventional steel base elevator ropes with composite ones like in the case of KONE Ultrarope.

3. What are you most excited about at your job?

In product development and technical support, I can make an impact from the customer interface to our internal functions – I work with our sales, production, customer service and purchasing department on a daily basis, and this versatility makes every workday interesting. However, the most inspiring of all in my work is to get to know and develop new products and applications, many of which represent something that has not been seen before in the industry and are indeed industry-leading technology products.

Name: Sanna Korhonen
Job title/position and company’s name: Process engineer, metal pretreatment and ecoating, Tesla
Education: Formulation engineer, ITECH Lyon with a scholarship from Väriteollisuusyhdistys Bachelor of Chemistry, University of Helsinki

1. What was your dream job as a child? What led you to your school of choice?

I wanted to study biotechnology after finishing high school. I applied a couple of times but never got in. Instead, I started studying chemistry as a back up solution and ended up finding it really interesting after a while. I started specializing in polymer chemistry and then one day the opportunity to go to France just popped up in my emails and I decided to apply. It was not at all planned and it seemed very spontaneous, but looking back, it seems things worked out the way they were meant to.

2. What does your company do/manufacture? What kind of innovations is your company working on?

Tesla is best known for electric vehicles but we also produce solar panel roofs and batteries. The products create a full circle of solar energy production, storage and application.

3. What are you most excited about at your job?

We are really pushing boundaries. Every single day we challenge what is considered “standard” in the automotive industry and see if there is something we can do better. It is also a huge learning experience personally, that’s what I enjoy the most.

Name: Tomi Tuomisto
Job title/position and company’s name: Team Lead, FinVector Oy
Studies: Laboratory Technician, Winnova, Pori.

1. What was your dream job as a child? What led you to your school of choice?

I used to dream of becoming firefighter, but during middle school I stated being interested in sciences and especially in chemistry. Unlike most of my classmates who went to High school, I chose to go for Technical school in curriculum specializing in laboratory work.

2. What does your company do/manufacture? What kind of innovations is your company working on?

The main product we are working on is gene-therapy cure for bladder cancer. We also have done contract manufacturing to other companies, most recently with Finnish Corona Vaccine project.

3. What are you most excited about at your job?

When I can skip the paper work I’m expected to do as Team lead and instead get my hands on some hands on work in clean room. If that is not possible I take enjoyment out from my team performing well and them feeling good about the work.

Name: Lisette Van Tassel
Job title/position and company’s name: Manufacturing Specialist, Upstream at FinVector Oy
Education: Bachelor of Science in Biology at Laurentian University (Sudbury, Canada), Master of Science in Biochemistry at University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland), PhD in Biochemistry (2022) at University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland)

1. What was your dream job as a child? What led you to your school of choice?

When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was either going to be a cardiologist or a dance teacher. When I was studying Biology (and preparing for medical school), I took an elective course called “Biochemistry of nucleic acids”. The professor often went on tangents, in which he would talk about his own research. One day, he went on another tangent about how tumours both form and expand their vasculature network through a process called “angiogenesis”. At this point, I no longer wanted to be a medical doctor. I wanted to cure cancer! I noticed that schools in Finland do a lot of great research on tumour angiogenesis. So, I found a University with a great international biochemistry program, and I was accepted at the University of Oulu, where I did my Master of Science in biochemistry.

2. What does your company do/manufacture? What kind of innovations is your company working on?

FinVector is a world leader in the research and development of Viral-Based Gene Therapy products.

3. What are you most excited about at your job?

I’m excited about the effect I can have on people’s lives. We are curing cancer!

Name: Priscila Estrada
Job title/position and company’s name: Laboratory Technician at Yara Suomi, Siilinjärvi site
Studies: Vocational Qualification in Laboratory Technology, Savo Vocational College, Kuopio, Finland

1. What was your dream job as a child? What led you to your school of choice?

I don’t remember having some special dream job as a little child. As I grew up, becoming an engineer came to be the thing I wanted the most, although I wasn’t sure what area of engineering I wanted to work in. During my high school years, it became clear to me that chemistry was the area I enjoyed the most.

2. What does your company do/manufacture? What kind of innovations is your company working on?

Yara mainly manufactures fertilizers, but the Yara Siilinjärvi site is way more complex than that. The site has the only phosphate mine in Western Europe which open pit is the largest in Finland. Also, in addition to a fertilizer plant, the site counts with a sulfuric acid plant, a nitric acid plant, a phosphoric acid plant as well as a power plant.

3. What are you most excited about at your job?

Since I am quite new at my current position, I am still learning a lot which is very motivating and exciting. I enjoy that there is enough routine but the samples and tasks can change from one day to the other, and thus there is also variation. I like that the work that is done in the laboratory has an important role in terms of product quality and safety, so I feel my work is meaningful. I also get to work with great colleagues and the overall working environment is very positive.