Johan Palm joined Naava's (formerly known as Naturvention) winning team in the beginning of this year.
He now works as the CFO of Naava via Greenstep. He has earlier experience from the manufacturing business, telecommunications, and media business.
Clean air as an product - how do you see Naava's potential in the future?
I am originally from Umeå, Northern Sweden where the air is naturally fresh and healthy like in Finland. When I travelled to Bangkok around 25 years ago I got a shock from the polluted air. I couldn’t enjoy being there because the air quality was so bad.
Nowadays, there are absolutely too many highly polluted cities in the world where the inhabitants suffer from unhealthy air on a daily bases.
All in all, I see a huge potential for Naava's innovations around the world.
What is your role as a part of Naava's team?
Currently to make the financial planning for 2016-2020, for all the potential expansion cities - from that, we make a preview to the investors to understate the financial situation that makes the internalization of Naava possible. I have worked together with Naava's management Aki, Niko, and Mika on this project.
I have also been helping out with Naava's first expansion abroad, to Sweden, my country of origin.
How do you see your previous experience fit your role at Naava?
I think I have matching experience. In bigger companies I was in charge of regions and several countries so it’s natural to me to take care of the expansion of a company to international markets.
In Kiosked, the atmosphere of the company was similar to the one here at Naava and I got to experience what it is like to work in a start-up.
I find, especially these two previous experiences, to be a strong asset.
What do you think is your biggest success in your career?
For a finance person it’s important to be very accurate in forecasting. From the accurate results I can see that I have succeeded in my tasks.
At Huawei, I participated in the negotiations of the bigger deals and I was part of a team that then, also finalized these deals. It was very empowering to see the big deals being fulfilled.
Fresh indoor air is a way to increase well-being and to support cognitive performance. To support these with your own behavior and action is called biohacking.
How do you biohack yourself?
I live next to a forest and whenever I get a chance, I go for a run in there in the mornings. It gives me so much energy: that’s the absolute best booster. It keeps me fresh and it’s a real endorphin kick. Running in the nature is an amazing start to your day, as it gives the day a healthy start and after that it is easy to follow the healthy lifestyle by drinking a lot of water, eat good food etc.