From Student Leaders to Seasoned Professionals – The Lasting Impact of The NBF Leadership Program

When thousands of leaders walk into Nordic Business Forum each year, the first faces they meet, the first greetings they hear, and even the first shuttle ride they take are often orchestrated by Student Team Leaders. They are the ones translating big promises—world-class customer experience, smooth production, warm atmosphere—into reality on the ground.

Our Customer Service Team Leaders undergo a Leadership Program before recruiting and training the customer service team, composed mainly of students from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences. About 200-250 students are recruited each year, and later divided into smaller teams to take care of specific CS functions, led by our Team Leaders.

Years later, many of those leaders are now running teams, businesses, brands, and even student unions. We checked in with five former Team Leaders to hear how their time at NBF shaped where they are today, and which leadership lessons have stuck with them the most.

On the Frontline of First Impressions

For some, leadership at NBF meant owning the very first moments of the customer journey. In 2019, Speaker Services and later the Check-in function became home base for Susanna Kolu. She describes her role simply but powerfully: “I was a Student Team Leader in 2019, responsible for Speaker Services, and later in 2022, I worked as a Team Leader in Check-in together with my partner in crime, Fami. In practice, this meant leading and supporting the team on-site, making sure operations ran smoothly, and most importantly, taking care of the people so they could succeed in their roles.”

Former Team Leaders Fami Cao and Petra Pohja also experienced what it is like to lead the Check-in function at the event. They saw pre-check-in and check-in as the emotional launchpad of the entire experience: providing “as smooth and strong a start as possible and a positive first emotional impact towards the actual event,” as Fami describes.

Orchestrating First Class Experiences

Others led where expectations were sky-high: the First Class experience. In 2023, Joel Kangasmaa took responsibility for the First Class shuttle service. It meant organizing transportation together with a sponsored car company, coordinating schedules with the First Class hosting team, and ensuring that guests who had invested in a premium experience felt it from doorstep to venue and back again. His team also supported Speaker Services when needed and worked closely with Special Services to handle urgent matters for customers and speakers.

A few years earlier, in 2018, Matti Nätynki was leading First Class Services with a similar mission: host First Class guests, operate shuttle services, and jump in to support Roaming Customer Service or Hosting teams between shuttle rush hours. “Just being part of such a great and massive event was an incredible experience and presented a big challenge,” he reflects.

From One Event to a Turning Point

For all five alumni, the Team Leader experience didn’t end when the lights went down on the Main Stage. It nudged, accelerated, or clarified their career paths. For Joel, the impact was immediate and personal:

“It has had a significant impact on the choices I have made in my life. The experience built my confidence and helped me realize that I am capable of achieving anything if I am willing to put in the work.”

Through the program, he secured his current job and gained the courage to run for the chairperson position of Helga, the student union of Haaga-Helia. The leadership practice and feedback he received helped him lead “with empathy and kindness” throughout his mandate.

Susanna had been in leadership roles since 2016, but after her years at NBF, she was trusted with greater responsibility. She describes how her “confidence and operational creativity really started to bloom.” Today, she is the General Manager of Activate Games Helsinki, a “dream-come-true position.”

Petra, meanwhile, had known from early in her studies that she was drawn to leadership and customer experience. Working at NBF in 2016 lit the spark; becoming a Student Team Leader in 2019 cemented it. The Leadership Program “greatly affected my career path, where I want to grow.” Today, she leads a sales team of four. The program may not have handed her a job contract, but it did “clear my vision on my career path and offer valuable contacts” she still treasures.

For Fami, NBF has become a long-term reference point: “After my first time being in the event 2019, I still think that NBF was a major trajectory for where I am now after 7 years.” Right after graduation, he joined an organization that provides human-centric leadership coaching for executives, leaders, and teams, and later moved into entrepreneurship and building his personal brand. Looking back, he says:

“To be honest, NBF is still at the top of the highlights during my whole studying path at Haaga-Helia because of the broad connections and tools this experience has given me later in my life.”

Human-Centric Leadership in Action

We asked these alumni what leadership means to them now, and the answers sound remarkably aligned. For Fami, it starts with understanding human needs:

“In human-centric leadership, to ensure psychological safety and a sense of belonging where people are motivated to do more than just what is required, there are three fundamental human needs that should be fulfilled: the feeling of being heard, seen, and appreciated.”

Susanna puts it in equally simple, powerful terms: “One leadership lesson I’d love to share is this: your main goal is always to help others shine. A happy team truly makes the best team.”

Petra connects that same people-first approach directly to customer experience, reflecting on learnings from Salla Seppä: “Learning from the Chief Customer Experience Officer, Salla Seppä, was very valuable for me. I learned from Salla’s example that taking care of the team and keeping them happy and motivated affects customer satisfaction, and that going the extra mile for customer satisfaction can have a significant impact. This can be easily noticed as a customer in the event.”

And Joel ties leadership firmly to empathy and courage:

“A key leadership lesson I learned is that confidence grows through responsibility, experience, and trust. Being placed in real leadership situations taught me that you don’t need to have all the answers right away. What matters is being willing to take ownership, communicate clearly, and work closely with others. Above all, leading with empathy and kindness goes a long way. It is something I can’t emphasize enough.”

Together, their perspectives echo many of the themes that have shaped NBF’s Main Stage over the years: psychological safety, servant leadership, and the belief that a great customer experience starts with a great team.

Trust, Preparation, and Letting Go

Beyond “people first,” another theme keeps resurfacing in their reflections: trust. For Matti, the biggest lesson was the link between preparation and performance: “Maybe the most important lesson concerned the relationship between preparation and the event itself. In a way, the event can be compared to an athletic performance: last-minute adjustments don’t do much good, so you must trust the preparation you have done.”

That trust had to extend not only to the plan, but to the people: “Since I was responsible for the team I recruited, I needed to dare to trust the team as well. Once I did that, great results followed.”

He recalls the fast pace of the event and the joy of watching team members make independent decisions that later received excellent feedback. For him, that autonomy didn’t happen by accident; it was built on a foundation of openness among the Team Leaders:

“What sticks with me about the other Team Leaders is the trust and transparency we shared. There were no ‘elephants in the room’ and neither positive nor negative things were left unsaid. We also operated according to the ground rules we created ourselves, from the moment they were set. This made a difference, and I am sure that this atmosphere radiated from us to our team members and all the way to the guests.”

A Network That Keeps On Giving

The Leadership Program may be time-bound, but the community isn’t. Years after the event, Petra’s Team Leader group is still connected: “We still have our WhatsApp group from almost 7 years ago, where Salla to this day sends interesting job opportunities.” Even if she hasn’t personally used those opportunities, she sees how they can “open doors” for others, and she remains “forever grateful for this enlightening experience” that shaped her determination as a 21-year-old leader.

For Fami, the network has become a living toolkit: a circle of peers to collaborate with, learn from, and occasionally, build something new with. The same is true for Joel, Susanna, and Matti, who all trace threads from NBF to later roles, projects, and friendships.

The Next Wave of Leaders

Looking at where these former Team Leaders are now, chairing a student union, running a game arena, leading sales teams, building a personal brand, and continuing to grow as leaders, it’s clear that the program is about much more than one event.

It’s about learning to own a critical piece of the customer journey. It’s about discovering that confidence grows through responsibility. It’s about building communities where people feel heard, seen, and appreciated, and where, as Susanna reminds us, “a happy team truly makes the best team.”

And perhaps most of all, it’s about that moment when a young leader realizes: I can do this.