IT WAS an ordinary day in Toronto, until an announcement beckoned Jonathan Hobin and his fellow photography students to the radio and TV building. There, they watched in horror as the first of the two towers eroded, and the second plane hit its twin. The date was 11 September 2001.

President and chairman of FIMKrypto, Svante Lehtinen believes in technology and economics for a social good.

Svante Lehtinen is the president and chairman of Krypto FIN ry, a Finnish association dedicated to bringing the new cryptocurrency FIMKrypto to the world. Lehtinen is interested in the technical and economic aspects of cryptocurrencies, but he also thinks they can have a major social welfare element.

Voodoo to dance to.

WHAT do you think of when you hear the word “voodoo”? Images of pin-saturated dolls and headless chickens come to mind for some, whereas myriad rhythmic possibilities emerge for others. For Helsinki-based guitarist Janne Halonen, drummer Juha Räsänen and bass player Sampo Riskilä, it was definitely the latter. And so, in January 2012 they travelled to Villa Karo, the Finnish-African Cultural Exchange centre in Benin, on a scholarship.

Marc Skvorc has worked in hotels everywhere from Hawaii to Washington, DC. After revolutionising Klaus K he is now running Finland’s most famous hotel, Kämp.

AMERICAN Marc Skvorc has seen much of the world. He has lived and worked everywhere from Saudi Arabia to New York, from London to Florida. But it was in a hotel school in Strasbourg, France where he met his Finnish wife-to-be Mia. After working in hotels across America they moved to Finland. Here Marc transformed the Klaus K hotel, turning it into the country’s first design hotel. But his road didn’t stop there and now he is leading Kämp, the most prestigious hotel in Finland.

You seem to have a very geographically diverse background.

Rock star and revolutionary.

In early January 2011, Ramy Essam was an ordinary student. He studied architecture in a city near Cairo and played guitar, and like many students he was frustrated with his government. By the end of month, however, he was singing to over 100,000 people who had gathered to protest the regime. The moment he stepped on to the stage in Tahrir Square – the student became a revolutionary.