Pekka Viljakainen was appointed as the Advisor to the President of Skolkovo Foundation, an organization that works with startups.
Mr. P. Viljakainen will start work on Monday, December 19th.
“We are turning a new page in the Foundation's historyin 2012. Our goal is to find professionals who will be able to develop the interaction between Russian and world innovation markets. Mr. Viljakainen with his experience, extensive contacts in the European business community andentrepreneurial talent will help us achieve thesegoals. Pekka is, with good reason, known by both colleagues and competitors as the ‘Bulldozer’,” says Viktor Vekselberg, the President of Skolkovo Foundation.
Commentingon his appointment, Pekka Viljakainen says; “My experience asanentrepreneurmakes me confident that Skolkovo will be a successful project and become a noted phenomenon in the globalinnovation system. It’s not justa question of constructing thebuildings ora technology park.The key is attracting the most successful companies and the brightest people, capable of working in a stiff, competitive environment. I’m more than happy,” he continues, “to sign up for the job of helping young entrepreneurslearn from the best innovations acrossRussia and Europe, and helping them provide the best possible working environment for the whole team.”
Background information:
Pekka Viljakainen has spent the past 20 years as an ambassador bringing together business executives and technology teams.
He studied engineering at the Lappeenranta University of Technology and began his career as an entrepreneur in 1986 by establishing Oy Visual Systems Ltd. In 1998, Pekka joined Tieto through the acquisition of his company. At Tieto Pekka's reputation and track record for handling very complex governance and political issuesinside large international organizations and delivering results earned him the nickname "Bulldozer".
Thanks to his technical background and passion for business, Pekka has been one of the leading architects within Tieto in building a more efficient information society. He washeavily involved in promoting the service revolution and the strategic role of digitalization across Europe, Russia and China. While working at Tieto International, Pekka analyzed the fundamental changes in consumer behavior and it simplications for corporate strategies across the information intensive businesses. The team he led consisted of 8350 people in24 countries.
Pekka stepped down as the president of Tieto International on the 1st of November 2010. He spent the following year concentrating on family life and charity ventures, such as the “No FEAR Community” and book project.