Riitta RAEKALLIO-WUNDERINK

CEO/ Chief TreeHugging Officer, HaliPuu

Riitta Raekallio-Wunderink is the CEO of a family-owned company HaliPuu, Finnish for ”a tree to hug”.

A daughter of a lumberjack from Finnish Lapland in the Arctic, Riitta spent her childhood in the forest, joining her parents on endless trips of foraging and firewood collecting. She later moved to the southern part of Finland to pursue a degree in business, but her love for the forest remained.

After years of living in cities abroad Riitta and her young family moved back to Lapland to live close to her beloved forest. She took all she had learned on her travels, combined that with the deep sense of the forest, and created HaliPuu. A company dedicated in bringing people into the forest and the forest to the people in a playful and approachable way, to help everyone everywhere appreciate every tree in their own neighbourhood.

HaliPuu has been featured in The Times, Business Insider, National Geographic and countless others.