Maria Ristimäki

Maria designs and facilitates training for leaders and international expert teams on how to work together more effectively across differences. She helps teams with communication, feedback, and conflict, starting from the situations people actually face.

She is certified in Cultural Intelligence and trained in Nonviolent Communication, and spent four years in international peace mediation at CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation before moving from diplomacy into business. She has worked with businesses, public institutions, research organisations, and industry bodies, particularly in tech, media and publishing, the service sector, and higher education.

Her research on inclusion at work, co-written with Dr. Oskari Rintala, was published in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – an International Journal in 2026, and became the white paper "Inclusion in the Workplace: How to Build an Organization Where Everybody Belongs."