Kempower Media Hour

Meet your speakers and experts.

Tomi Ristimäki

Tomi is the CEO of Kempower, with over 20 years’ experience in electrification and more than 10 years’ involvement in the e-mobility sector. He has worked in cleantech throughout his career, specifically focusing on electrification and unlocking energy savings for all stakeholders. Tomi is passionate about making the world cleaner and more sustainable by enabling the electrification transition.

Tomi joined Kempower in 2019 and leads the company as it establishes itself as the market-leading provider of DC fast charging devices and services for electric cars, off-highway machines, marine vessels and commercial vehicles. Before joining Kempower, he spent nearly a decade at Danfoss Editron, with primary responsibility for business development in the company’s vehicle electrification business unit. Tomi also counts cleantech industry heavyweights in Vacon and Honeywell as previous employers.

He holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Management from Finland’s Tampere University of Technology. Tomi is quadrilingual, speaking Finnish, English, German and Swedish, while his electric vehicle manufacturer of choice is Tesla.

Jed Routh

Jed Routh is Kempower’s Vice President of Markets and Products for North America. Routh has been in this leadership position at the Durham, NC site since May 2023. In this role, he heads Kempower’s product management, engineering, marketing, and communications functions.

The bulk of Jed’s career has been spent in the commercial vehicle segment where he has a varied background with past roles in functions including supply chain, product management and sales and marketing. As both leader and team member on early EV development projects in the commercial vehicle space, Jed found a new passion for electric vehicles, and he transitioned his career to this new segment.

Routh holds an MBA from UNCG, as well as a Masters of Engineering Management from Arizona State University.

He lives in Franklinville NC with his wife, Lisa. The two have 4 adult children and two grandchildren.

Marcus Suvanto

Marcus Suvanto is Kempower’s VP of Operations & Business Development NA and has served in a leadership role since February 2023.

Before joining Kempower, Marcus held positions as Chief Operating Officer at Plugit Finland, a turnkey solution provider for EV charging, and Head of EV Charging Solutions at construction engineering company Destia. He also has 10 years’ experience working at electronics manufacturer Ensto and founded his own consulting company specializing in EV consulting for businesses.

Marcus holds a master’s degree in engineering, supply chain management from Helsinki’s Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Erin Johnston

Erin Johnston is Interim Director and Kempower’s Vice President of Finance and Administration for North America. She has been in this leadership position at the Durham, NC site since April 2023. In her current role, Erin oversees Kempower’s finance, human resources, and information management business areas. Notably, she is also serving as the interim Managing Director for North America.

Erin has dedicated a significant portion of her career to pharmaceutical engineering within a large company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. During her tenure at this company, she held several progressive roles, including Director of Finance and Interim General Manager for North America. Before joining Kempower, Erin also served as the Director of Finance for a SaaS company backed by a private equity firm.

Erin holds a Master’s Degree in Finance and a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Business Administration.

She lives in Coats, NC on her hobby farm with her husband, Lee, and their three sons.