
Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä
A curious impact-driven scholar who is…
- Dedicated to work between communities in uncertain territories.
- Fascinated to co-create science-arts blendings.
- Inspired to share knowledge for diverse audiences.
- Committed to deliver high-quality content.
Jukka-Pekka is a seasoned speaker and workshop leader who embodies practical insights with science-backed content to each talk and workshop he delivers. A downloadable summary of speaking and workshop content is available here.
JP has founded a variety of initiatives that have made a positive impact on both to the society and science. Openings in the extreme ends of the planet include the establishment of Pyongyang Startup Week, in North Korea and the Burning Stories project, a science-art collective that studies transformational festivals such as Burning Man, the US (2018 – ongoing). His deep expertise in management topics, entrepreneurship education, and organizational science with ability to combine methods and disciplines has been the backbone of success across a wide range of fields.
Jukka-Pekka draws inspiration from his extensive research and scholarly work published in peer-reviewed top-tier academic journals, including Academy of Management Discoveries, Journal of World Business, Environment and Planning A, as well as his editorship of a special issue on scholar-activism in the Journal of Sustainability, and publications in Finnish in Hallinnon Tutkimus, Aikuiskasvatus, and Futura. His H-index is 8, by Google Scholar. The societal impact of his projects has garnered recognition from media outlets such as the Financial Times and Finnish national broadcaster YLE. To stay updated on his most recent endeavors, check out his blog posts on Medium. For his latest (2022/2023) speaking engagements and workshop offerings, refer to the Speaking & Workshops section. JP is affiliated with:
-
Harvard University, Visiting Scholar (2022 –)
-
Stanford University, Visiting Scholar (2019-)
-
The Royal Society and British Academy, Newton Fellow (2014 – 2024)
-
Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Fellow, (2017 – 2020) at Aalto Uni. School of Business, Helsinki
-
Artlab, Member of the Board (2021-)
-
Burning Stories science-art collective, founder (2018 -)
-
The Shortcut, Member of the Board and Lead of Research (2016-2019)
Academic & media articles
Speaking
and workshops
In today’s world, the value of scientific research and its dissemination cannot be overstated. Jukka-Pekka’s keynotes and workshops are dedicated to entrepreneurship, leadership in challenging environments, innovative and inclusive forms of organizing, community building, novel approaches to science communication, the impact of AI, and the latest business forecasting models. To learn more about his work, you can reach out to him via LinkedIn or email at jukka-pekkaX@protonmail.com. For corporate inquiries, please contact his speaker agency, MySpeaker
A snapshot of 2022 / 2023 talks & workshops
St. Gallen (Switzerland) – entrepreneurship in extreme
BOOM (Portugal) – storytelling and festivals
Lunden Architecture – creative organizations
Alko – future forecasting models
Tequtalks – leading in challenging environments
Musta Norppa festival keynote – Why do scienceart?
Demos Helsinki Untitled Conference crushing social preset
Black Rock City leading organiser of Burning Nerds gathering
OsloFreedomForum – keynote on scholar-activism
SUGAR Network – innovations in extreme settings
JP’s passion for his work is evident in the dynamic and innovative format of his presentations, which incorporate engaging visuals and sound, and can be customized to fit any organizational context. He has been keynoting in large-scale events since 2015, for example, in Slush (Fin), Startup Grind (US), Princeton University (US) and Chaos Computing Conference (Ger) and in transformational festivals such as BOOM (Portugal), Mitäs Mitäs (Fin) and co-hosting annual Burning Nerds meetup in Burning Man, the US since 2019. Recent online example speech (in Finnish) is about sustainability-driven entrepreneurship. Feel free also to tune in to listen podcasts (2020) with topics of Peace & Entrepreneurship from Geneva Peace Week and Science of Participatory Cultures. Most recent blog postings are available in Medium.
Jukka-PekkaX(at)protonmail.com

Dr. Heikkilä
Jukka-Pekka
Interested in collaborating with JP? His future work will be about developing a entrepreneurship and peacebuilding framework and he is always passionate about co-building impactful platforms that combine the fields of entrepreneurship, organizational science, and the arts. The expertise to this lies in experience of leading in extreme environments and creating co-created volunteer initiatives that apply self-organizing governance models.
Earlier references on the above include founding and co-creating the WTSUP! Beirut, Pyongyang Startup Week and Burning Stories platform and Startup Circus, a blend of circus and pitching competition. He is a supporter of intentional communities such as the Feytopia, France, Embassy Network San Francisco, Blivande Stockholm and Alter Ego, UK and a regular contributor to Burning Man and Chaos Computing Club (CCC) participatory culture communities.
Values and interests

Project
highlights
Jukka-Pekka has co-founded or contributed to a variety of projects. Each below project blends different disciplines and utilizes novel forms of governance to create both high-level societal impact and rigorous scientific research, as evidenced by the projects’ coverage in top-tier academic publications. Wisdoms from there are also present in talks and workshops.