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Executive Director
Jaakko Sauvola
Professor
University of Oulu
+358 50 383 9272
jaakko.sauvola(at)oulu.fi
Professor
University of Oulu
+358 50 383 9272
jaakko.sauvola(at)oulu.fi
The executive director of Allied ICT Finland leads the Management and Coordination Team. The members of the team are from different areas of Finland. The team consists of the following people, click on the profile icon to see more information.
Ms. Johanna Haveri has over 10 years of experience in various tasks developing companies and their personnel. In addition, she has worked 17 years as a freelance journalist and an entrepreneur in communications. Since autumn 2019, she has been working as a project coordinator at the University of Vaasa, mainly in projects related in the “New Space Economy” at the multidisciplinary Digital Economy research platform.
Project Coordinator, University of Vaasa, Research Services and Graduate School
Sc. (Economics and Business Administration)
www: https://www.uwasa.fi/en/person/2159343
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanna-haveri-294a013/
I graduated as MSc in geotechnics at the University of Oulu 1991. From my researcher career I gained a deep and diverse experience on environmental technologies, especially utilization of industrial by-products. Since 1997 my professional career has concentrated on various environmental business development operations including over 20 years of experience in private sector. As a result I have large contact network consisting of companies, research organizations, funding agencies, technology development organizations and both municipal and industrial customer segments. ICT applications have played a significant role in the business development activities. The current post in the University of Oulu, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, requires ability to apply my expertise in ICT related co-operation creating new solutions to various business verticals.
Eero.J.Huttunen@oulu.fi
Dr. Minna Komu, PhD (Med Biochem), MSc (Econ & BA) works as OuluHealth Network Director being responsible for ecosystem’s strategy, strategic partnerships, collaboration and invest in activities in the area of Health and Life Science. Minna is a scientist with business background and driven business development professional with strong experience in internationalizing business, identifying and creating new business opportunities and managing relationships with a special focus on customer experience. She also holds a PhD in Medical Biochemistry and a vast experience working in highly esteemed research groups in Finland and USA. Minna’s aim at OuluHealth is to bring partners together locally, nationally and internationally, to seek enablers for innovation and identifying business opportunities.
minna.komu@businessoulu.fi
M. Sc. Marjo Heikkilä is working as a research and development manager at Centria University of Applied Sciences. She is Research Group Leader of digitalization technologies in Centria. Before Centria, she worked as a RF and EMC type approval engineer within Nokia Networks. She has over 20 years of experience of various research and development projects developing wireless communication systems and applications. She is currently working as project manager in Digital Factory platform project and PRIORITY research projects. Her research interests include the field testing of mobile networks and the development of 5G evolution in areas of agriculture, public safety and industry.
marjo.heikkila@centria.fi
Heikki Rasku is working as a Dean in Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, School of Technology. Heikki has the background in global industrial organizations, including senior management positions within the areas of production, logistics, product development, product management and business management, including management of 250+ employees and 100M€+ business accountability. Within the role in SeAMK, Heikki’s focus areas are factory digitalization and new product development and management processes.
heikki.rasku@seamk.fi
Project Manager
Faculty of Information Technology
University of Jyväskylä
Phone | +358 50 349 9862 |
risto.a.talja@jyu.fi |
Risto has worked with Allied ICT Finland (AIF) and its predecessor HILLA in Oulu and Jyväskylä since 2015.
Before AIF, Risto worked at an industry-leading multinational company at the intersection of heavy machinery and process industry. This involved considerable co-operation with companies and research institutions internationally. He coordinated significant external funding for the company for a decade. He was also a member of the team making patent application decisions.
In the start-up field, Risto has been a founding member of a company started in 2014. In the 2018 “Startup Weekend Oulu” event, he won the competition as a team member. Risto was also one of the instructors for the winning team in the international 2021 SmartSoc program.
His expertise includes the whole RDI process from idea generation to launching new products into market.
Linkedin: https://fi.linkedin.com/in/ristotalja
Project Manager, Talent Hub Robotics,
Prizztech Oy, Robocoast DIH
essi.vanha-viitakoski@prizz.fi
https://www.linkedin.com/in/essivanhaviitakoski/Jaani works as a senior lecturer and a project manager at LAB University of Applied Sciences. He has 20 years of teaching and research experience e.g. from Tampere University of Technology, LUT University, and Helsinki University. Jaani has a Master's Degree in statistics, with PhD in Knowledge Management. His main research, teaching, and publishing interests are in the field of data analytics, business intelligence, and digital marketing and CRM platforms.
Jaani is heavily invested in making R&D as close as possible to practical life through co-innovation. To this end, he has actively been engaged with the Finnish Testbed -environment as a project manager for South Karelia Social and Health Care District's ELSA Testbed, and is currently sitting in the board of LAB WellTech testbed unit. Jaani is focused on providing managerial tools to facilitate better decision making, and has offered his expertise in this field for various international companies in different industries. Additionally, he has also been working as a team coach for young entrepreneurs in LAB entrepreneurship co-operative program.
+358 40 687 6850
Dr Jaakko Sauvola (Dr. Tech, ’97 on AI, Computer Vision and Machine learning, Professor) has over 25 years of R&D, business development and business management experience in industry and academia in Finland, US, Brazil, China, India and UK. He has served in different executive and senior leadership roles in Nokia, University of Oulu and various industry forums, with over 150 completed business development, product and R&D programs, many of whose results are in use globally.
Within business, Dr. Sauvola has been responsible for various new business, R&D and corporate level roles such as Head of Nokia Strategic Business Area, Director in Corporate Business Development, R&D Director of Nokia Money business, Head of Nokia Advanced Development, Director of Nokia Strategic Architecture, Head of 13 Nokia’s Business-Technology programs, Director of Nokia Ventures, to name a few, with staff in four continents. Dr. Sauvola has co-founded three start-ups focusing on advancing digitalization, accelerating businesses, and co-developing next generation technologies with global partners.
Within ecosystems, Dr. Sauvola has led many technology, product, BD and research setups up to 600 people, as a chairman of board, as executive director or as general manager, such as Nokia Technology Institute, Digital Media Services Finland, National Kaato FDI program, National Hilla program, and Allied ICT Finland. Further, he has ideated and/or co-founded multiple research areas and ecosystems between industry and academia, e.g. Mobile Forum, PanOulu city WLAN, Octopus 3G/4G test network, Testlab Finland, Center of Internet Excellence, Arctic Drone Labs, SuperIoT, Analytics plus, Water ICT, Automotive cluster, Reboot Finland, Smart Campus and 6G Flagship.
Within academia, Dr. Sauvola has served multiple occasions as e.g., professor for digital media and information networks and professor in software engineering and on the education side teaching topics such as artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, mobility, and computer graphics, and led e.g. Information Networks program. He has led several research groups at university, e.g., MediaTeam and Center for Advanced System Studies, and published ca 100 refereed papers in international forums, conferences and journals with research touching topics such as AI/machine vision, intelligent systems, software and system architectures, digital health, mobile services, and industrial IoT systems.
More recently, Dr. Sauvola continues to work at University of Oulu, bridging research to business via ecosystems, with activities on e.g., scalable intelligent services research, collaborating with companies with new technologies and business models, Allied ICT Finland network, 6G Flagship ecosystem, and as a professor driving co-creation RDI projects with portfolio of vision work, projects and programs in the areas of wireless, AI and IoT systems, and their use in vertical businesses and society.
Mr. Paavo Kosonen has over 20 years of experience in various R&D, university collaboration and management roles from industry, for example Nokia and Ericsson, and business collaboration roles at universities and cities. Currently he is working as a development manager at University of Turku. His role includes methods for business collaboration and hands on project planning with companies and research teams around Finland.
Development manager, University of Turku, Development Services
Licentiate of Technology (Lic. Tech.), Master of Science in Econ. and Business Adm.
WWW: https://www.utu.fi/en/business-collaboration
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paavokosonen/
Twitter: @TheKosonen