Our team
To our team at Service Pulse belongs: researchers, designers and co-writers in form of colleagues, friends and family.
Researchers

Helena Liewendahl
Founder, PhD
I am a post-doctoral service researcher, associated with CERS, Hanken and Åbo Akademi University. My passion is bridging theory and practice. I enjoy doing action- and participative research with a societal impact, following the Nordic School principals. My research is inspired by future studies and service design. My current research focuses on organizations’ readiness to live up to their customer promises by exploring co-workers’ alignment with service-, brand- and CSR promises. My research applies a humanistic co-workership perspective.
During my post doc research, I developed the first version of the Service Pulse tool based on longitudinal studies on employee work motivation and work wellbeing. I have twenty years of professional experience of combining research with organizational development, consultation, and coaching in co-worker motivation and customer promise alignment.

Maria Ekström
Founder, PhD
During the last two decades I have held positions as marketing lecturer, researcher, e-learning developer (virtual university), information specialist / pedagogic developer and project manager, mainly in academic institutions (Hanken School of Economics, Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Aalto University and Laurea University of Applied Sciences).
Currently I am working as principal lecturer at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, educating students in multidisciplinary teams (future nurses, social workers, and business professionals).
My doctoral dissertation in 2008 was about “Identifying processes constructing the senior consumer identity”. As project leader of the Aalto University Media Factory I was in charge of coordinating, planning and developing activities of the Media Factory with specific focus on media research and the coordination of different multidisciplinary research and educations projects. I am also a part of a network working with marketing to elderly (Kolmas) and Member of the academic board at the French Université Gustave Eiffel.

Anu Helkkula
Advisory Board Member, PhD
Dr Anu Helkkula, Manager of Hanken PhD Programme, PhD in service research (Hanken School of Economics). She is well published, her research focusses on service design, experience, value, AI, occupational wellbeing, and healthcare service. She has organized many research projects with many companies and organizations.

Minna Pura
Advisory Board Member, PhD
Minna holds a PhD in marketing from the Hanken School of Economics and maintains an active research agenda on innovations, strategic foresight, transformative leadership, digital service development, and consumer behaviour. During the last decade I have worked at several universities, currently acting as a Specialist in Futures Design at Laurea UAS and as a board professional.
I promote resilience and wellbeing at work with the help of engaging, gamified, participatory techniques such as LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. I specialize in quantitative methods such as AI, big data, experiments, open data, surveys, and tests but do also ethnography and futures research.
I provide consultation and workshops in strategic foresight, real-time strategy, and business design.

Kristina Heinonen
Advisory Board Member, PhD
Kristina Heinonen is Professor of Service and Relationship Marketing and Head of Subject at the Department of Marketing at Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. She is a well-known researcher in the field of service research, with a particular focus on service innovation, customer experience, service technologies, and customer-driven service strategy. Professor Heinonen is also the founder and project leader of the Finnish Innovation Index project, which is an annual survey-based study that measures the innovation capabilities of Finnish companies.
Advisory Board Member, PhD
Members

Päivi Kousa
MBA, Service Pulse Facilitator
I am hands-on work-life development professional, psychodynamic coach, change-agent consultant, workplace counsellor, trainer, and Service Pulse facilitator. I´m also certified in mindfulness-based development methods. I am experienced in building healthy organizational cultures, grounded in human interaction, communication, and relationship quality.
I have an MBA in Regenerative Leadership. Currently I am a doctoral applicant, and my research focuses on attachment styles at work and employee wellbeing. The focus is particularly on employees’ holistically experienced safety in a service context.
I have 30 years of experience in several industries (in multinational companies, SMEs, and start-ups) as process developer, counterparty credit risk specialist, different manager positions, executive councils, and country director positions.
I have a passion for applied cross-disciplinary research with a societal impact.

Eija Komulainen
Senior Advisor
During the past 3 decades I have worked at the core of strategic HRM in several management teams and industries in different multinational companies. Throughout my working life, my passion has been understanding the combination of people, organisational .During the past 3 decades I have worked at the core of strategic HRM in several management teams and industries in different multinational companies. Throughout my working life, my passion has been understanding the combination of people, organisational culture, and strategic business. I have learned how important mutual commitment of the management and people in the company is, and how it at best affects the success of the operations, employee well-being and business results.
At Service Pulse I support our clients to enhance their strategic alignment of employee well-being, customer value and financial results by operationalizing our research findings and intervention design.

Tess Stigzelius
Sustainability Advisor
Sustainability has been part of my long-term personal interest and commitment. I have a professional background working with human rights, combating human trafficking as well as working as an energy management consultant where I have gained valuable insights on the energy sector. I strongly believe Corporate Responsibility is an important part of a comprehensive approach to tackle issues such as forced and child labour in supply chains as well as the environmental challenges we are facing today.

Wilhelmina Syrenius
UX UI Designer
I’m a B.A. student in Digital Marketing with a minor in Graphic Design. Experienced with WordPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Premier Pro. In addition, I have experiences within app-development and coordinating events.

Mattias Nordling
CTO
Technology and problem solving have been an interest of mine since the 1990’s. I have a M.Sc degree in Computer Science and 15+ years of work experience in projectmanagement for ERP/HRMs and SaaS solutions from global suppliers.”

Jens Smeds
IT & Software Specialist
I am a software development professional with experience of a diverse set of software development tasks in different environments, ranging from large corporations to small start-ups, around Europe. My core expertise is value-driven development of tailor-made software solutions as well as agile development processes and practices. Adding to my previous experience in internal product development, during the past few years, I have worked mostly with consulting, aiding companies to develop modern web-based software.
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