Päivi Kuusela was born in Taiwan, where she spent a significant amount of her childhood and acquired a love for practicing characters! Due to having been born into the intersection of different language and cultural worlds, she, together with extensive company networks, is able to create stepping stones for others making the transition among them. Via recent R&D for culture trainings in a changing world, she has been specialising in contradiction and paradox management - a key interdisciplinary skill of the future, she believes, especially in consideration of the huge sustainability transformation ahead. 

Päivi enjoys connecting people, and sees herself as a cultural mediator above all, being passionate about creating meaningful encounter and connection despite differences. Having worked as a translator, travel guide and language and culture trainer since 2006, training Finnish, English and Mandarin Chinese, her focus is on practical interpersonal communication, interaction and management skill. Clients have included executives at ABB, Tieto, Nokia, Rovio, Stora Enso and US Embassy Helsinki.

She is a founding member of Slush China, where she worked with localization in the role of Head of Investor-Startup Relations (Beijing 2015). She holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Helsinki. Complementing a Diploma in Marketing & Management in China from the Helsinki Marketing Institute, in 2015 she acquired certification in Advanced Intercultural Management from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business. Most recently, company research and development has been conducted in the context of a MA degree, with a focus on elevating company operations to the international relations arena, especially as related to sustainability.