Helsinki-based writer, editor and broadcast journalist Katja Pantzar was born in Finland and raised and educated in Canada, with stints in the UK and New Zealand. A freelance member of the Finnish public broadcasting company Yle’s News in English team, Pantzar has also been a regular contributor to Blue Wings, the in-flight magazine of Finnair, and a Helsinki correspondent for Monocle 24.

She is the author of three guides to Helsinki: The Hip Guide to Helsinki, Helsinki by Light and 100 Things to Do in Helsinki. Her most recent book Finding Sisu: In search of courage, strength and happiness the Finnish Way (Hodder UK) has been translated into 21 languages and published in 22 territories around the world.

Aki Choklat is an international design professional and shoe designer. He not only runs his own footwear label of shoes, handbags and accessories but also has held numerous positions with international fashion labels, such as designing a capsule footwear collection for London-based menswear Diverso and consulted with numerous brands, such as Finnish footwear heritage brand Lahtiset. He is the Sauna Ambassador for Sauna from Finland.

Hans Hägglund is a medical doctor and adjunct professor at Uppsala University, as well as being a long-standing sauna enthusiast and resident ‘sauna doctor’ at the Swedish Sauna Academy. He is an in-demand lecturer and has just published the book Bastuboken: Heta fakta om bastu och hälsa [The Sauna Book: Hot Facts About Sauna and Health] (Ekerlids Förlag, 2020).

Mari Eder is a Finnish biathlete and cross-country skier. Mari has twice won a World Cup race. She was born in Eno, Finland but has been living in Austria since 2013 and is married to Austrian Benjamin Eder.

Marko Paananen is a Finnish interior designer. He graduated as an interior designer in Los Angeles. Studying and working life took ten years in California. He currently works mainly in Finland, but has done projects also in Italy, mainly focusing on home furnishing.
He is well-known as a designer from the television interior design series Inno (2004–2009).

Samu Haber is a Finnish musician, television personality and music manager. He is known as the frontman and vocalist of pop-rock band Sunrise Avenue. The band has released five studio albums selling more than 3,000,000 albums and 2.000.000 singles worldwide.

Atomu Tanaka is a Japanese football player who plays for HJK in Helsinki. Tanaka says that Finland is like a second home country to him and he is a passionate fan of sauna as well.

Maria Nystedt is a project manager at Raison d’Etre, one of the leading spa consulting and spa management companies. Originally from Sweden, today she lives and works in Palma, Mallorca.

Maria joined the company in 2009. She has more than 20 years of experience in the cosmetic, beauty and spa industry. Prior to joining Raison d’Etre, she was the Spa Manager for the multiple award-winning Six Senses Spa at Soneva Fushi in the Maldives. She has a Diploma in Business and Marketing from IHM Business School. As a CIDESCO certified beauty therapist, she has also worked as a Training Manager at the L’Oréal group.

Tapio Pajuharju is the Group CEO at Harvia, the world’s leading sauna and spa company. Pajuharju moved to Harvia in the summer 2016 from Hartwall, where his main responsibility as the CEO was the company’s business and market share growth in Finland and internationally. Before this Pajuharju worked as the CEO of the cosmetics company Lumene for ten years.

Tapio has brought cross-sectoral and international knowledge to sauna business via his branding, distribution and international trade expertise.

EOS is a leading brand in the premium and professional channel and the company has more than 75 years of experience in the sauna industry. Located in Germany, EOS products are now available in more than 80 countries around the world. The company’s broad product portfolio consists of professional and premium sauna heaters, gas-powered heaters, control units, steam generators, infrared hardware, and accessories.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vanessa Borkmann heads the research work in the hotel and tourism sector at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart. She is also Professor of Tourism and Hotel Management at the SRH Berlin University of Applied Sciences. She is the initiator and project manager of the joint research project FutureHotel and of the research networks Alpen FutureHotel Y and Future Museum.

She is a globally recognized expert for innovation and digitalization in the tourism industry. Vanessa Borkmann is editor and author of numerous scientific studies, books and specialist publications, as well as keynote speaker at international events.

Esa Vuorenmaa is a project manager for SnowPanda Education and Research Consortium SERC in Ähtäri.

Jasper Pääkkönen is a Finnish actor and entrepreneur. After his over two-decade career in Finnish movies his international breakthrough role was in 2015 in historical drama television series Vikings. His next roles were in Spike Lee’s film BlacKkKlansman and war-drama film Da 5 Bloods.

Pääkkönen is also an entrepreneur and has founded Löyly, a large sauna and restaurant complex at the shore of Hernesaari in Helsinki.