Professor Ewald Kibler was recognized for his work in contributing to the development of Aalto’s entrepreneurship education
In the award ceremony for the Business Leader of the Year, two scholarships of the Finnish Business Association (Suomen Liikemies-Yhdistys) were also handed out, both worth 2,500 euros.
Professor Ewald Kibler was awarded for promoting entrepreneurship. According to the reasoning, the award acknowledges, for instance, the wonderful collaborative efforts between the School of Business (Entrepreneurship Unit, Department of Management Studies), Aalto Ventures Program (AVP), and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto University School of Science, in designing and delivering entrepreneurship education. As part of this initiative, a completely new Master's program in Sustainable Entrepreneurship has been introduced.
Lauri Ratia was honored as ‘Vuoden Yritysjohtaja (Business Leader) 2023,’ and Erik Kurittu was awarded for his exceptional Master’s thesis on the integration of sustainability into corporate venture capital strategy and investment.
The Business Leader of the Year was selected and awarded in cooperation with the Finnish Business Association, Kauppalehti, and the School of Business.
***
Recording of the event below. For watching certain talks of the programme, pls. find the right minutes to start from:
> CEO Mikael Pentikäinen, 7:10 min. >
> Professor Ewald Kibler and M.Sc. (Tech) Erik Kurittu, 26:20
> Associate Dean Virpi Tuunainen, 44:25
> Award ceremony of the Business Leader of the Year, Lauri Ratia, 53:20
> teollisuusneuvos (Industrial Adviser (unofficial translation)) Lauri Ratia, 58:10
Read more news
Iris Seitz awarded for exceptional early-career achievement
Dr. Iris Seitz, former PhD student of Professor Mauri Kostiainen, has been awarded the 2026 Robert Dirks Molecular Programming Prize for her work on programmable protein architectures with nucleic acid origami.
Awards presented for top doctoral and master’s theses at the School of Science
In 2025, there were altogether 71 doctoral and 607 master's degrees in the School of Science. In March, seven outstanding doctoral and six master's theses were awarded.
Sherwan Haji’s My Name is Hope has won the 2025 Jussi Award for Best Short Film
My Name is Hope is director-screenwriter-actor Sherwan Hajin’s master’s thesis film from the Department of Film at Aalto University.