Speakers
The Chemicals Projects Platform conference brings together speakers from the European Commission, national parliaments, cities, universities, research institutions and NGOs across the Baltic Sea Region and beyond. They share expertise on EU chemicals policy, substitution of hazardous substances, endocrine disruptors, PFAS, sustainable procurement and credible environmental claims. Read more below to learn about each speaker and their work before joining the discussions.
Agnieszka Ilola
Agnieszka Ilola is the Head of Secretariat of the Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC) Sustainable Cities Commission, hosted by the City of Turku, Finland, where she also works as a Senior Advisor.
She has over 20 years of experience in international cooperation and sustainable urban development, with a particular focus on developing and managing EU-funded projects and platforms, coordinating strategic sustainability programmes and facilitating partnerships between cities and municipalities across the Baltic Sea Region.
Her work focuses on advancing green transition, promoting sustainable and resilient cities and strengthening cooperation between local authorities and other stakeholders. Through the UBC Sustainable Cities Commission, she supports knowledge exchange, policy dialogue and joint initiatives to address shared urban sustainability challenges.
Antonia Reihlen
Antonia Reihlen is part-time self-employed working on EU chemicals policies and part-time working for CHEM Trust Europe as chemicals policy expert. Her work focuses on the implementation of REACH and the substitution of the most harmful chemicals. Among her clients are NGOs, consulting institutes and EU institutions. Before that she worked for the consulting company Oekopol as researcher and consultant on chemicals policies. Her work comprised various projects aimed at shaping and contributing to the proper implementation of EU chemicals policy. Antonia is a biologist by education.
Arne Jamtrot
Arne Jamtrot is the Head of the Chemicals Centre at the Environment Department of the City of Stockholm. The Chemicals Centre is giving guidance and recommendations to the City’s entities about how to avoid hazardous substances, in order to implement the City’s Chemicals Action Plan and reach the objectives in the Environment Program. He is currently also acting head of the Water Unit at the same department.
He has worked for 25 years at the Environment Department with different issues related to hazardous substances and environmental monitoring. He was the project manager and main author of Stockholm’s first Chemicals Action Plan in 2014.
He has a PhD in Water and Environmental Studies from Linköping University and a chemistry degree from Stockholm University.
Aleksandra Rutkowska
Aleksandra Rutkowska is a biotechnologist and researcher at the Medical University of Gdańsk, where she has worked since 2004. Her research focuses on endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), environmental exposure and disease prevention, with particular interests in reproductive health and prenatal development.
She is the co-founder and CEO of DetoxED, a company developing tools and educational initiatives to help people reduce their exposure to EDCs. She is also the co-founder of R3GENA, which combines lifestyle education, physical activity and recovery.
Her work in European projects, including LIFE ChemBee, Interreg NonHazCity and LIFE MUMs, connects scientific research with practical measures to reduce exposure to hazardous chemicals.
She is the originator of CheckED, a digital tool designed to estimate potential exposure to selected groups of EDCs through household and lifestyle factors and provide personalised recommendations. She also conceived and co-invented two solutions for bisphenol A detection protected by Polish patents.
She holds a PhD and a habilitation in medical and health sciences and has completed postgraduate studies in molecular medicine.
Esa Nikunen
Esa Nikunen is the former Director of Environmental Services for the City of Helsinki, Finland. He retired in 2025 after a long career in environmental protection, environmental health, and food and veterinary safety. Previously, he was a Director at the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency, responsible for chemicals control. Before that, he spent 20 years in senior positions at the Finnish Environment Institute. He has extensive experience in international cooperation through the Nordic Council of Ministers, the OECD, the EU and the United Nations. Trained as a limnologist, Esa specialises in hazardous chemicals and environmental protection. He spends part of the year in the archipelago of the Gulf of Finland. He believes cities have a crucial role to play in safeguarding our planet and building a sustainable future.
Hannamaria Yliruusi
Hannamaria Yliruusi is a Senior Lecturer and Project Manager at Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland. Her work focuses on sustainable public procurement and the prevention and management of hazardous substances, with particular emphasis on chemicals-smart and circular procurement. She leads international development projects that support municipalities and other public organisations in strengthening their chemicals management and integrating chemical, climate and circularity aspects into procurement practices.
Ieva Markuceviciute
Ieva Markucevičiūtė-Vinckė is an Executive Research Manager at Mobility Consultants whose work focuses on sustainability, impact assessment and evidence-based decision-making. Combining research, consultancy and project management, she contributes to evaluating the social, environmental and economic implications of policies and investments. Her work in Horizon Europe, Interreg BSR and other EU programms connects research with practical implementation, helping public-sector stakeholders address sustainability challenges and make informed decisions.
Ilze Neimane
Ilze Neimane is an environmental sustainability expert and Board Member of the Ecodesign Competence Centre (Latvia). She holds Master's degrees in Environmental and Business Management and Environmental Management. She is particularly recognized for her expertise in greenwashing prevention, environmental claims, and ecolabels, helping organizations apply credible sustainability communication and navigate the growing landscape of environmental claims and sustainability requirements.
Ilze has experience delivering training and advisory services to businesses, municipalities, and public institutions on sustainable procurement and ecolabels. She is actively involved in raising public awareness of responsible consumption, promoting informed consumer choices, and strengthening understanding of trustworthy environmental information.
Jana Simanovska
Jana Simanovska is a Member of the 15th Saeima, the Parliament of Latvia, re-elected for Progresīvie (The Progressives) in 2026. In the 14th Saeima she chaired the Environmental, Climate and Energy Subcommittee and led Latvia’s delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). At the IPU she worked on resolutions linking peace, security and environmental protection.
Before entering Parliament, she spent ten years heading the NGO Ecodesign Competence Centre, working on green public procurement and chemicals policy. Under her leadership the centre won a court case against the Ministry of Agriculture, which secured public access to data on pesticide use. She also taught and did research at Riga Technical University and Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. Earlier, she led the chemicals programme at the Baltic Environmental Forum.
She has written various peer-reviewed articles on ecodesign, hazardous substances in product life cycles, the circular economy and green public procurement. She also co-edited a European study on preventing food waste. She holds a doctorate in environmental engineering from Riga Technical University and degrees in chemistry and environmental science from the University of Latvia.
Markus Raudkivi
Markus Raudkivi is a Project Coordinator at the HELCOM Secretariat. He has worked on the topic of PFAS for over seven years and on the topic of hazardous substances, especially when it comes to hazardous substances at the wastewater treatment plants, for over a decade. Nowadays, his work tends to be more focused on the marine environment of the Baltic Sea, and the measures and monitoring of the pollution. He coordinated the Interreg BSR funded project EMPEREST and is currently working with the new HAZGONE project platform, aiming to bring together a holistic understanding of where hazardous substances originate, and where they finally end up at.
Nameda Belmane
Nameda Belmane is an environmental management and sustainability expert with more than 20 years of experience in environmental consulting.
Nameda specializes in ecodesign, life cycle thinking, ecolabels, climate change adaptation, and waste management. Since 2022, she has served as a Board Member and Project Manager at the Ecodesign Competence Centre, where she leads projects focused on reducing and substituting hazardous substances in products and promoting safe and sustainable procurement choices.
She holds a Master's degree in Environmental Management and Policy from Lund University, Sweden, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Latvia.
Paul Speight
Paul Speight is the Head of the Safe and Sustainable Chemicals Unit in DG Environment of the European Commission. Before that he was Acting Director of Directorate E, dealing with compliance, governance and support to Member States. Prior to that he was the Head of the enforcement Unit and was the Brexit negotiator and co-ordinator of EU-UK issues for DG Environment.
In previous posts at the European Commission he was Deputy Head of the agriculture and land use unit, Deputy Head of the Biotechnology, Pesticides and Health Unit and before that he dealt with the revision of the Waste Framework Directive and the development of green public procurement in the EU.
He holds law degrees from Liverpool and Bordeaux Universities.
Robert Pochyluk
Robert Pochyluk is the President of the Management Board of eko-net.pl sp. z o. o. Until 2004, he was a research fellow at the Environmental Protection Centre of Gdańsk University of Technology. For 12 years, he served as President of the Polish Environmental Management Forum.
For over two decades, he has combined business practice with active involvement in the development of international standards. He co-chaired the international ISO/TC 207/SC1/WG15 working group responsible for the development of ISO 14001:2026. He is the creator of REGULIS® – an online application for developing legal requirements registers for ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO 50001 management systems.
He is an active environmental management systems auditor (ISO 14001, EMAS), assessing, among other things, how organisations address applicable legal requirements.
He has participated in numerous projects involving the transposition of EU legislation into Polish law.
He is the author of “How to Use EMAS for Improved Chemicals Management: A Guide” (2026) and co-author of “Management of Chemicals as a Part of the Environmental Management System: Guide” (2021).
Susana Fonseca
Susana Fonseca is a founding member and vice-president of the Portuguese environmental NGO ZERO – Association for the Sustainability of the Earth System, where she coordinates the area of ‘Sustainable Societies and New Forms of Economy’.
She has been involved in several projects on chemicals in daily life (LIFE Ask-REACH; LIFE ChemBee, and more recently LIFE MUMs).
Before she was a researcher in the field of Environmental Sociology at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute and more recently at Social Sciences Institute of the University of Lisbon.
She is one of the founding members of Coopérnico – Cooperativa de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, CRL, the first renewable energy cooperative in Portugal.
She holds a PhD in Sociology from ISCTE – IUL.