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05.06.08
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| MindTrek Startup Launchpad Jury |
|
Head of Jury:
Sharon C. Ballard, the founding President/CEO of Enable Ventures Inc.
Jury Members:
Marc Davis, Social Media Guru, Yahoo!
Tapio Siik, Partner, Nokia Growth Partners
Pekka Pärnänen, Head of Finpro, Silicon Valley Henri Rantalainen, CEO, Business Development Advisor, Technopolis Ventures Professia SHARON C. BALLARD Enable Ventures Inc. Prior to founding Reticular Systems, Mrs. Ballard was Director of Business Development for Titan Corporation, a NYSE company, where she was responsible for marketing and sales of advanced satellite communications systems such as Mini-DAMA, a $350 million award for UHF satellite communications systems. Previous to Titan, she served as Business Development Manager with Motorola where she was responsible for technology and systems sales for the satellite communications business unit, a $100M division with 60 engineers. Mrs. Ballard served as an Engineering Manager then Sales Manager with LINKABIT Corporation, establishing the sales efforts for new lines of digital communications systems, including the first Internet modems. The founders of LINKABIT later founded QUALCOMM Inc. When she left LINKABIT to join Motorola eight years later, LINKABIT had grown to over 600 employees. She is currently co-writing a book with Jonathan Levie (Ph.D., and director of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Glasgow) entitled Launching Technology Startups: Practical Tools and Techniques for First-Time Entrepreneurs. MARC DAVIS Yahoo!
 Marc Davis is Chief Scientist of
Yahoo! Connected Life and Director of ESP. His work focuses on creating the
technology and applications that will enable the billions of daily media
consumers to become daily media producers. His research encompasses the theory,
design, and development of sociotechnical systems that leverage contextual
metadata and the power of community to enable people around the world to
produce, describe, share, and remix media, and to connect to each other in new
ways. As Chief Scientist for Connected Life and Director of ESP (Early Stage
Products), Marc and his team invent and help realize the future of mobile,
social, media, monetization, and platforms.
Personal Web Site:
Yahoo! Research Berkeley: Previously, he has been working at ABB and Intergraph, focusing on CAD/CAE/CIM. Tapio holds an M.Sc. from the Tampere University of Technology. Tapio is based in Tampere, Finland. Pekka has more than 20 years experience in international business in Internet, IT and Communications industries. He has been helping companies to establish or re-establish themselves in the international markets with specially deep experience in establishing companies and partnerships in North America, Japan, Europe and Asia. Pekka's experience has enabled companies to go through accellerated learning curves in establishing successful business and technology strategies driving successful international market penetration. Prior to Finpro, Pekka was Director for Global Business Development for Solid Information Technology. Prior to Solid, he was VP Global Marketing and Sales for Cybelius Software and also set up the company in the US and prior to Cybelius he was President for T.V.I - TEMET Vision Industry in Helsinki and Atlanta, GA, USA.
Henri has a M. Sc degree and has experience in SW, semiconductor and service businesses. In addition, Henri has been appointed to the boards of several growth companies.
Ville is also working as a UX Strategist at Nordkapp in Helsinki, Finland. Nordkapp is a partnership of creative thinkers, problem solvers and designers who specialize on crafting visual communication and interactions on strategic, conceptual and concrete levels. Ville in Jaiku: http://villevesterinen.jaiku.com/ |
Mrs. Ballard is the founding President/CEO of EnableVentures, Inc., an
Arizona corporation (2005). She is the former President/CEO, and one of
3 founders of Reticular Systems, Inc., a privately held California
corporation (1989). Reticular Systems developed intelligent agent-based
patented computer hardware and software products that aid customers in
solving complex, time-critical problems. Under her leadership, the
company won over 30 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program
awards. The company spun out new start-up corporations that were
quickly purchased by venture-backed companies.
Tapio Siik, Partner, brings close to twenty years of engineering and technology experience from various software and hardware areas to the team. During his 15 years with Nokia, he has held several management positions in network infrastructure, mobile handset, and venturing organizations, where he has also been involved with multiple acquisitions in various roles.
Pekka Pärnänen, currently the Head of Finpro Silicon Valley where he also was key in establishing the FinNode (Finnish Innovation Center in Silicon Valley) in 2007. In Finpro Pekka is responsible for the ICT and Services Sectors in North America.
Henri has 20+ years of experience in corporate management. He started his career as a successful entrepreneur, and has since served in international business development activities at Synopsys, Inc., as well as in the management team of Nokia Networks´ OSS SW group.
Ville Vesterinen is an Editor and Co-founder of ArcticStartup, the leading weblog reviewing and reporting on internet and mobile software startups and growth entrepreneurship in and from the Nordic and Baltic countries.
