CTOs of the Year 2023 and Innovation Professor of the Year 2023 have been announced

This year, the jury consisting of leading technology influencers selected Juha Kytölä of Wärtsilä and Kuan Yen Tan of IQM Quantum Computers as the winners of the CTO of the Year 2023 Awards. The Innovation Professor of the Year Award was given to Mircea Guina of Tampere University.

The CTO of the Year Awards are given in cooperation by Technology Industries of Finland and innovation consulting company Spinverse. The Awards are meant to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers’ work, and that of the professors collaborating with companies, on the future competitiveness of Finnish industry. The awards were announced and handed out on the 21st of March 2023 at the CTO Forum. An event, which this year focused on skills and talent gap in Finland, had a keynote by the Permanent Secretary Anita Lehikoinen from the Ministry of Education and Culture and a panel discussion where Ismo Laukkanen of ABB, Julia Macharey of Valmet and Tero Ojanperä of Silo AI brought their viewpoints to the topic.

The jury’s chairperson, Technology Industries of Finland CEO Jaakko Hirvola commented on the winners: “The winners of the CTO of the Year and Innovation Professor of the Year and their respective organisations highlight the ability of the Finnish industry to renew and innovate. A stable and competitive RDI operating environment enables companies’ growth and investments into the future and future talents.”

Wärtsilä – leading the world towards emission-free shipping

In the large companies’ category, the CTO of the Year 2023 award was given to Juha Kytölä. He has had a long and distinguished career in Wärtsilä where he currently works as Director of R&D and Engineering in Wärtsilä Marine Power. During his career Kytölä has served the company globally in multiple positions from product development to various management-level positions. Previously in his career he has also been in charge of business operations as a CEO of Wärtsilä Finland.

Juha Kytölä comments: “This is a great acknowledgement for the research, technology and product development that we conduct in Wärtsilä. It is all about global teamwork and I’m so proud of having skilled and hard-working people and teams with me. Together we can create the path towards decarbonisation, at the seas and on land, everywhere in the world.”

Wärtsilä is a global leader in advanced technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets. Wärtsilä’s strategy is to shape the decarbonization of marine and energy. Innovation, new technologies and product and system development are key enablers for that journey. Juha Kytölä has been an inspiring and experienced leader shaping and driving the company’s innovation, alternative fuel development and driving decarbonization of Wärtsilä offering portfolio towards the company’s officially announced carbon neutrality target by 2030. In 2021, Wärtsilä was granted Business Finland leading company project for Zero Emission Marine project. Kytölä has been a fundamental leader in setting up the programme.

Quantum computing enabling faster solutions for global challenges

Kuan Yen Tan, CTO and Co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers, was awarded the title of CTO of the Year 2023 in the SME category. IQM – a spinoff from Aalto University and VTT – builds on-premises quantum computers. Quantum computing has the potential to drastically increase the computing speed compared to traditional computers, thus helping the world to find solutions for complex problems from drug discovery to battery optimisation or climate change questions. IQM is a leading quantum computing company in Europe, and the only one delivering quantum systems with full access to its hardware. The company has fast become a crucial part of Europe’s quantum ecosystem and is already part of building quantum computers in Finland, Germany, France, and Spain.

As a Co-founder, Kuan Yen Tan has been part of IQM’s growth and development from the beginning. His peers describe him as a visionary who leads one of the world's most innovative bunch of engineers and scientists, to deliver world-changing innovation. His scientific work is also widely cited and used by researchers worldwide. His and IQM’s achievements in the recent years include the delivery of Finland’s first quantum computer, establishment of the first exclusive quantum processor fabrication facility in Europe, and creation of new product categories including quantum accelerators for HPC centre and on-premises quantum computers as products, to name a few.

The winner Kuan Yen Tan says: “I am incredibly proud of the impact we are making within the scientific community and also to the quantum industry. Throughout my career, it has always been my goal to try to improve and deliver my best every day, and this award is a recognition to the entire IQM team, dedicated to everyone who has supported me in my scientific career, and also to everyone who has believed in us. This award will further boost me to strive harder and build a world-class organization of the future.” He adds: “Of course, all these can only happen because we have a great and innovative ecosystem here in Finland, one that cultivates creative ideas into disruptive technologies that will make the world a better place.”

European impact in optoelectronics industry

The Innovation Professor of the Year 2023 Award was given to Mircea Guina, professor of Optoelectronics Technology at Tampere University. He is heading the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), which is one of the leading European academic research groups focused on the development of optoelectronic materials. The technology researched has been instrumental for the rise of the semiconductor laser industry in Finland and plays a major role in the advance of emerging photonics development platforms. Professor Guina has an outstanding career in photonics research and industry collaboration, making a Finnish technology impact rooted in university research, with a strong differentiation at European level. He is an internationally recognized researcher with a wide funding portfolio including the highly competitive European Research Council Advanced Grant.

The Innovation Professor of the Year 2023 Mircea Guina says: “I am extremely pleased to receive this recognition at an important turn-point for the entire semiconductor technology sector in Europe. The European Chips Act highlights the need for accelerated investments securing the access to semiconductor chips and technology sovereignty in key industrial sectors, such as automotive or communication. To this end, academic-industry collaboration is instrumental not only for innovation aspects, but also for ensuring the availability of highly skilled engineers required to run the semiconductor fabs of the future.”

Professor Guina has mentored several entrepreneurial teams and co-founded three deep tech spinoffs based on university research: Vexlum, Picophotonics and Reflekron, all located in Tampere, and exploiting innovation related to semiconductor technology. He has supervised more than 20 PhD students in optoelectronics, laser physics, or photovoltaics, many having high-level positions in technology companies in Finland. Concerning national-wide collaboration, he has been instrumental in creating new industry-academia co-innovation ecosystems, most recently in the area of photonics integration, advanced manufacturing for photonics, and photonics-enabled quantum technology.

The Award finalists showcase potential of Finnish technology knowledge base

Janne Lautanala of Fintraffic and Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen of Metsä Fibre were chosen as the finalists in the CTO of the Year 2023 Award in the large enterprise category. In the SME category, Urho Konttori of Varjo and Nikhil Pachhandara of Optofidelity were nominated as finalists. The finalists in the Innovation Professor of the Year 2023 were Ali Harlin of VTT and Janna Saarela of University of Helsinki, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland.

Read the announcement in Finnish here.

Additional information:

Secretary of the jury: Pekka Koponen, tel. +358 40 545 0008

The CTO of the Year Award is handed out for the 13th time this year. It is a recognition awarded to a chief technology officer who has improved the technologic competences and growth potential of their company or enterprise, is an inspiring leader, and an active participant in societal discussion. In 2023, the jury's chairman is Jaakko Hirvola from Technology Industries of Finland. Other members of the jury are Director-General Nina Kopola of Business Finland, board professional Malin Persson, and the CTOs of the Year 2022 Simo Säynevirta, Petteri Uusimaa and Jero Ahola. CTO Forum is a Finnish community of CTOs. It invites all innovation and technological officers of Finnish companies to network, discuss and share ideas between businesses. CTO Forum’s mission is to promote the work of CTOs and businesses. CTO Forum is organised and the award is handed out by Technology Industries of Finland and Spinverse.

Finalists of CTO of the Year and Innovation Professor of the Year 2023 in Finland announced

Since 2011, the CTO of the Year Award has been an annual recognition of the importance of Chief Technology officers to the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. The award has two categories: SMEs and Large enterprises. Moreover, for a third year in a row, there will be an award for the Innovation Professor of the Year. The award was set up to increase the recognition of collaboration between academia and companies.

Register to CTO Forum here

All CTO of the Year nominees were evaluated based on predetermined criteria that considers them as a person, their company, and their societal impact. For innovation professors, the criteria include the following factors: funding portfolio, funding volume, patents, and spinoffs and jobs created.

The finalists in the Large enterprises’ category are Juha Kytölä of Wärtsilä,  Janne Lautanala of Fintraffic and Kaija Pehu-Lehtonen of Metsä Fibre.

In the SME category, the finalists are Urho Konttori of Varjo, Nikhil Pachhandara of Optofidelity and Kuan Yen Tan of IQM Quantum Computers.

The finalists for the Innovation Professor of the Year award are Mircea Guina of Tampere University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Ali Harlin of VTT and Janna Saarela of Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland.

The 2023 jury consists of the CTO winners of 2022: Simo Säynevirta of ABB and Petteri Uusimaa from Modulight and Innovation Professor of the Year Jero Ahola of LUT University. The chairperson of 2023 jury is Jaakko Hirvola, CEO, Technology Industries of Finland and the other members of the jury are Nina Kopola, Director General of Business Finland and professional chairperson Malin Persson. Pekka Koponen, Founder and Vice-chair of Spinverse, served as the Secretary of the jury.

Chair of the jury Jaakko Hirvola says: “The finalists present a wide front of Finnish innovation capabilities and showcase that our country has a lot to offer for challenges varying from the renewal of industry and sustainability to health, well-being and deep tech future solutions.”

The winners of the CTO of the Year and Innovation Professor of the Year Awards will be announced on Tuesday 21 March 2023 at the Awards Ceremony, which is part of this spring’s CTO Forum. In addition to the awards ceremony, the event will focus on talents and skills, topics that were touched also on CTO Survey collected in autumn 2022. The event will entail a keynote session from the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Culture Anita Lehikoinen. Moreover, the Forum will include a panel discussion about Finland’s skills shortage with insights from Ismo Laukkanen, ABB, Tero Ojanperä, Silo.AI and Julia Macharey, Valmet.

Register to CTO Forum here

More information:

Secretary of the CTO of the Year jury: Pekka Koponen, Spinverse Founder and Vice-Chair tel. +358 40 545 0008

CTO Forum is a Finnish community of CTOs. It invites all innovation and technological officers of Finnish companies to network, discuss and share ideas between businesses. CTO Forum’s mission is to promote the work of CTOs and businesses. CTO Forum is organised and the award is handed out by Teknologiateollisuus ry and Spinverse. 

www.ctoforum.fi

CTOs of the Year 2022 and Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 have been announced

This year, the jury consisting of leading Finnish technology influencers selected Simo Säynevirta of ABB and Petteri Uusimaa of Modulight as the winners of the CTO of the Year 2022 Awards. The Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 Award was given to Jero Ahola of the LUT University.

The CTO of the Year Awards are given in cooperation by Technology Industries of Finland, Business Finland, and innovation consulting company Spinverse. The Awards are meant to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers’ work, and that of the professors collaborating with companies, on the future competitiveness of Finnish industry. The awards were published and handed out on the 2nd of March 2022 at the CTO Forum, an event which this year was themed around Finnish innovation seen from the point of view of leading Veturi companies and ecosystems.

The jury’s chairperson, Business Finland’s Director General, CEO Nina Kopola said: ”The awarded technology leaders and their companies showcase Finland’s extensive knowledge base and new opportunities for the industry. The acknowledged technology leaders have shown the importance of technology to the emergence of innovations and the success of their surrounding ecosystems. The Innovation Professor of the Year demonstrates how research leads to ground-breaking technologies that can develop new business and respond to global challenges.”

ABB’s leading company project (Veturi) strengthens the emergence of sustainable industry

In the large companies’ category, the CTO of the Year 2022 award was given to Simo Säynevirta of ABB. Säynevirta is leading the ecosystem collaboration for the ABB Veturi program Green Electrification 2035.  ABB plays an important role in boosting the digital transition in Finland and in the Veturi project of  Business Finland. Through his work, Säynevirta accelerates the development and implementation of sustainable energy grids and Power-to-X technologies.  

"The Green Electrification 2035 programme develops leading technologies with a significant impact to the smart systems of the future and to our living environment. The overall management of the novel energy system based on sector integration will play a central role in the carbon-neutral society using green energy,” Säynevirta comments. “It is extremely exciting to be part of developing solutions for a sustainable future.”

Throughout his career, Säynevirta has worked at ABB in several leadership and project management roles in digitalisation, product management and product development, both globally and locally. He has also been an active member in the Finnish Hydrogen Cluster and led the sub-workgroup of the cluster where hydrogen economy was visioned to become a new pillar for the Finnish exports and economy. Säynevirta is an active influencer in local and Europe-level forums addressing digital solutions.

Säynevirta, who is known for his visionary and innovative approach, is happy about the award. “It is an honour to receive this recognition and be part of creating Finnish competitiveness together with other societally impactful companies and technology influencers.” This year, the awarding of Säynevirta stresses the importance of leading complex ecosystems. The CTO of the Year Award has traditionally been given to the highest technology leader in the company, but technology leadership also takes place on other levels of the organisation and on interfaces outside the company.

Lasers enable more personalised health technologies

Petteri Uusimaa of Modulight was awarded the title of CTO of the Year 2022 in the SME category. A manufacturer of semiconductors, Modulight demonstrates the importance of technological development for the company’s growth. The company was established in 2000 as a spin-off of Tampere University of Technology, and it has shown strong growth in the recent years. It produces optical solutions for health technologies and other special applications, such as digital printing devices and quantum technology. The company was successfully listed on the First North of the Helsinki Stock Exchange in autumn 2021.   

As one of the founding members of Modulight, Uusimaa has participated in the development of Modulight technology and business operations from the very beginning. He has transformed Modulight from a manufacturer of semiconductors to a partner for global actors in pharma and biomedicine that produces medical solutions based on cloud technologies. At the moment, Uusimaa leads the technology development at Modulight. He has also been active in raising the awareness on photonics both in Finnish and European forums and has been a Board member in EPIC - European Photonics Industry Consortium for six years.

The winner Petteri Uusimaa says: ”This is a fantastic recognition to Modulight and to our long-term development work. In Finland, there are many actors currently developing top-notch technologies to world markets. This includes two other SME finalists in the areas of health monitoring and quantum computing, and we are very delighted to be recognised amongst such great companies. The development of Modulight products to cloud-based devices used for cancer and eye therapies has driven us to combine diverse expertise from quantum physics to biotechnology, software, and analytics. It is a pleasure to work with this team of such skilled colleagues.”

Applications on green hydrogen are being researched at LUT University

The Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 Award was given to Jero Ahola, the Professor of Energy Efficiency in Electricity-Driven Systems at Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT). In his work, he focuses on the production and usage of renewable electricity-driven energy systems. His research has a special focus on the production of green hydrogen and its applications. His research is driven by both the optimization of system-level energy and cost efficiency in electricity-driven applications and the research and development of breakthrough technologies such as food, fuels, or carbon products from the air.

Ahola has also played an important role in accelerating the collaboration between universities and business world: he is behind a multitude of patents for ABB and other companies. Ahola has also been one of the founding members for three different start-up companies, namely Solar Foods, Elstor and Afstor. The winner Jero Ahola says: “The energy of the future is clean electricity. It will help solve challenges related to climate change and become independent from fossil fuels.”

In awarding the Innovation Professor of the Year 2022, the jury evaluated the amount of funding the projects have received, collaboration with the industry, patents licenced, and the amount of new business and jobs created as a result of the research work.

The Award finalists represent a high level of technology knowledge

Mats Sundell of Mirka and Juha Kytölä of Wärtsilä were chosen as the finalists in the CTO of the Year 2022 Award in the large enterprise category. In the SME category, Kuan Yen Tan of IQM and Teemu Kurppa of Oura were nominated. The finalists in the Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 were Mircea Guina of Tampere University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences and Heli Skottman of Tampere University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology.

”The competition among candidates for the CTO of the Year and Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 was again quite fierce. It is very important to highlight the collaboration between companies and the research sector because at best, it will be a driver for real breakthroughs and new growth. For Finland to succeed in international competition calls for a high level of expertise, courage to invest and active innovation collaboration within company networks as well as in research institutions,” comments Jaakko Hirvola of Technology Industries of Finland.

”The Finnish technology sector demonstrated, also this year, the width of its base, and there were several excellent candidates. Our country’s expertise has a leading edge on many sectors, and this will help the economy in Finland and in the rest of Europe to take sustainable actions in good times and in times of crisis,” sums up Spinverse founder Pekka Koponen, who has been part of the selection process for 12 times in a row.

Additional information:

Secretary of the jury: Pekka Koponen, tel. +358 40 545 0008

Press release in Finnish
Press release in English

The CTO of the Year Award is handed out for the 12th time this year. It is a recognition awarded to a chief technology officer who has improved the technologic competences and growth potential of their company or enterprise, is an inspiring leader, and an active participant in societal discussion. In 2022, the jury's chairman is Nina Kopola from Business Finland. Other members of the jury are Jaakko Hirvola, Tomas Hedenborg, Jorma Turunen and the CTOs and Innovation Professor of the Year 2021 Jyrki Ovaska, Duleepa Wijayawardhana and Mikko Möttönen. CTO Forum is a Finnish community of CTOs. It invites all innovation and technological officers of Finnish companies to network, discuss and share ideas between businesses. CTO Forum’s mission is to promote the work of CTOs and businesses. CTO Forum is organised and the award is handed out by Business Finland, Teknologiateollisuus ry and Spinverse. 

Finalists of CTO of the Year and Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 in Finland announced

Since 2011, the CTO of the Year Award has been an annual recognition of the importance of Chief Technology officers to the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. The award has two categories: SMEs and Large enterprises. Moreover, for a second year in a row, there will be an award for the Innovation Professor of the Year. The award was set up to increase the recognition of collaboration between academia and companies.

Register here to the CTO Forum

All CTO of the Year nominees were evaluated based on predetermined criteria that considers them as a person, their company, and their societal impact. For innovation professors, the criteria include the following factors: funding portfolio, funding volume, patents, and spinoffs and jobs created.

The finalists in the large companies’ category are Juha Kytölä of Wärtsilä Marine Power, Mats Sundell of Mirka and Simo Säynevirta of ABB Oy.

In the SME category, the finalists are Teemu Kurppa of Oura. Petteri Uusimaa of Modulight and Kuan Yen Tan of IQM Finland.

The finalists for the Innovation Professor of the Year award are Jero Ahola of the LUT University Department of Electrical Engineering, Mircea Guina of Tampere University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences and Heli Skottman of Tampere University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology.

The 2022 jury consists of the CTO winners of 2021: Jyrki Ovaska from UPM and Duleepa Wijayawardhana from Supermetrics and the first Innovation Professor of the Year Mikko Möttönen of Aalto University and VTT. The chairperson of 2022 jury is Nina Kopola, Director General of Business Finland and other members of the jury are Jaakko Hirvola, CEO, Technology Industries of Finland, Jorma Turunen, former CEO of Technology Industries of Finland and Tomas Hedenborg, Founder and CEO of Fabel Advisory. Pekka Koponen, Founder and Chairman of Spinverse, served as the Secretary of the jury.

Nina Kopola says: “The finalists of CTO of the Year and Innovation Professor of the Year Awards symbolise the diversity of the Finnish innovation landscape. The candidates demonstrate that our R&I field is active in different technology areas and in different phases of technological development.”

The winners of the CTO of the Year Awards will be announced on Wednesday, 2 March 2022 at the Awards Ceremony, which is part of this spring’s CTO Forum. In addition to the awards ceremony, the event will include a keynote session from Volker Ziegler, Nokia Bell Labs about 6G and European industrial policy, and a panel discussion about Finnish leading companies and ecosystems with insights from Amy Chen, KONE, Heli Antila, Fortum and Juha Kytölä, Wärtsilä.

Register here to the CTO Forum

More information:

Secretary of the CTO of the Year jury: Pekka Koponen, Spinverse Founder and Chairman tel. +358 40 545 0008

CTO Forum is a Finnish community of CTOs. It invites all innovation and technological officers of Finnish companies to network, discuss and share ideas between businesses. CTO Forum’s mission is to promote the work of CTOs and businesses. CTO Forum is organised and the award is handed out by Business Finland, Teknologiateollisuus ry and Spinverse. 

www.ctoforum.fi

CTO Survey: Finnish companies are at the forefront of digital and green transition

R&D investments in Finland will continue to grow, driven by public funding. Finnish companies will continue to increase their product development investments in Finland also in 2022. Growth will be accelerated by the green transition, the advancement of digitalisation and the growth of public innovation funding for industry. This is evident from the CTO Survey directed at the Chief Technology Officers of industrial companies. The survey was conducted by Spinverse in cooperation with the Technology Industries of Finland and Business Finland. This finding is also supported by a recent investment report by the Confederation of Finnish Industries, in which the results on the growth of industrial investments were very similar.

However, the complexity of the operating environment, the need for rapid change, and the need to find skilled partners and workforce challenge companies in their goals of digital and green transition. Other challenges are related to component shortages, skilled workforce shortage and various regulatory challenges. “National regulatory choices are an increasingly important factor in attracting investment. The decision-making environment must be predictable. The regulations that oftentimes limit the operations, should be complemented by incentives, such as reducing the risks of investment,” says Pekka Koponen, Founder and Chairman of Spinverse.

Business has strong confidence in its added value in the green transition

Led by the Technology Industries of Finland, Finnish companies have sought to expand the traditional carbon footprint calculation, which only measures the company's own polluting effect, with “carbon handprint calculation.” The handprint also takes into account the life cycle impact of companies' products.

91% of the CTO Survey respondents feel that their companies' carbon footprint is at the forefront globally. “The result is promising, showcasing the ability of Finnish industry to act as a catalyst in climate activities. We believe that the handprint thinking will continue to act as a driving force that improves the competitiveness of industry,” Pekka Koponen continues. Most technology leaders estimate that the transition to carbon neutrality in their industry is taking place in the next six years. The changing business environment is driven, in particular, by the demand for new solutions and changes in value chains.

Energy-focused themes such as Power-to-X technologies, wider utilization of hydrogen and improving energy efficiency became the most important research and development areas in the survey in terms of carbon neutrality. In addition to these, more durable materials and their recycling were considered as other high-priority themes.

58% of CTOs estimate their companies' expertise in carbon neutrality as high, but at the same time 73% of CTOs feel that their companies need partners to achieve their carbon neutrality goals. The competence needs of both companies and partners are very multidisciplinary.

Investments on digital transformation shifting from process development to artificial intelligence and data utilization

86% of technology leaders who responded to the survey believe their companies are at the forefront of digitalization globally. 65% estimate that the digital transition has already taken place or will take place in the next three years. The change in the business environment is driven, in particular, by the demand for new solutions and new business and revenue models.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are seen as key targets for research and development to drive digitalisation. They are complemented by investments in data analytics, data-based services and data security.

Only 47% of technology leaders estimate their companies’ digital skills as being high. The competences needed to accelerate digitalisation, both within companies themselves and within their partners, emphasize diverse data processing skills.

"The growth in RDI investment is a positive signal towards Finland's goal of investing 4 percent of their GDP in innovation," says Pekka Koponen. “This has been clearly accelerated by the decisions made to direct Business Finland's funding to business-driven innovation ecosystems and pilot plant investments, for example through the Veturi Program for leading companies and by allocating EU Recovery and Resilience funding. Companies have immediately reacted to the decisions by increasing their own investments. Almost 80% of respondents plan to apply for public funding.”

“So that the companies' RDI investments continue to grow, Finland must have a competitive operating environment. However, in terms of public RDI funding, we are lagging behind the other OECD countries. In December, the Parliamentary Working Group on RDI presented a historic political commitment to increase funding to 4% of GDP. The Working Group's good proposals on the R&D tax incentive and the financing law, which will ensure the growth of appropriations, must now be prepared and submitted to the parliament by the government,” says Heikki Kuutti Uusitalo, Head of Innovation Policy from the Technology Industries of Finland.

The shortage of experts and finding suitable partners was clearly indicated as a bottleneck for growth.
Pekka Koponen sums up: “In solving the shortage of experts, all means must be introduced from facilitating immigration to retraining. The public sector alone will not be able to solve the problem quickly enough — we need to step up the activities for training in the private sector, too. In addition, the need for partnerships between companies will increase, because there are simply no experts available.”

The CTO Survey was conducted in late 2021, when it was sent to more than 500 technology leaders. The survey has been conducted annually since 2011.

More information:

Spinverse founder and chairman: Pekka Koponen, tel. +358 40 545 0008

CTO Forum is a Finnish community of CTOs. It invites all innovation and technological officers of Finnish companies to network, discuss and share ideas between businesses. CTO Forum’s mission is to promote the work of CTOs and businesses. CTO Forum is organised and the award is handed out by Business Finland, Teknologiateollisuus ry and Spinverse.

Nominations for CTOs of the Year and Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 opened in this autumn’s CTO Forum

CTO Forum is an invitational community for Finland's Chief Technology Officers, organised since 2011. The key theme in this autumn’s event on 3rd November 2021 was to discuss how Finland is aiming to solve global challenges. The hybrid networking and idea-sharing event brought together a good number of CTOs and other technology leaders representing a wide variety of Finnish industries. In discussions and workshops, participants were sharing valuable insights on how to best utilise our technology sector and how public programmes can support these efforts. What is more, the nomination period for the CTO of the Year 2022 and Innovation Professor of the Year 2022 was opened!

Nominate your candidates here

In addition to opening words by Spinverse’s Founder and Chairman Pekka Koponen and speeches from Executive Director Teija Lahti-Nuuttila of Business Finland and CEO Jaakko Hirvola of Technology Industries of Finland, preliminary results of the CTO Survey 2021 were shared at the event. Survey respondents were generally optimistic regarding, for example, the increase of their companies’ RDI investments in the future. In the workgroups that followed, the participants discussed the current challenges and opportunities for Finnish industries around the following themes: mission-based approach on RDI, agenda setting and proactivity, needs and technologies for the future, ecosystems and collaboration and business environments.

The event culminated in a panel discussion where the CTOs  and Innovation Professor of the Year 2021 brought in their insights relevant for Finnish technology industries around the theme Carbon neutrality and digitalization — systemic transitions creating new business opportunities. The panel discussion was facilitated by Spinverse’s CEO Laura Koponen.

CTO of the Year 2021 for large enterprises, Jyrki Ovaska, has worked as the Chief Technology Officer of UPM forestry company since 2013. He has played a central role in the transition of UPM from a traditional paper company to an innovative actor, and his contribution has been remarkable in the development of investments and research projects based on wood bio

mass. At the end of the panel discussion, Ovaska summed up: “Starting new businesses requires new competences but also a new mindset — and one heck of a drive to be able to succeed.”

Duleepa Wijayawardhana is the CTO of Supermetrics and CTO of the Year 2021 for SMEs. He has made an enormous impact on the growth of the company in helping to develop and expand the Supermetrics product portfolio and R&D team to serve the data analysis needs of the growing number of global customers.

What struck Duleepa as key learnings from the CTO Forum workgroup discussion, were three things about Finland. Firstly, Finland is not that different from Canada, Duleepa’s home country. Both countries share many challenges and we could learn from each other. However, the unique culture of Finland can be a great driver in finding solutions not seen elsewhere. Secondly, risk-taking is a topic that keeps coming up and a part of daring to take risks is to provide safety. Giving safety (funding, commitment and trust) will encourage risk taking. Thirdly, Duleepa summed up: “We are like children in our little playground, but we have to play together and trust each other to be able to solve global challenges.”

The breakthroughs in Mikko Möttönen’s research on quantum computing at Aalto University and VTT, and IQM made him the Innovation Professor of the Year 2021. IQM was recently selected to deliver the first quantum computer in Finland. Mikko Möttönen noted that 

his key learning from the workgroup was that the role of universities is still important and that Finnish universities still “hold” the best talent globally. Mikko sees that the universities should get better at transferring the knowledge to business and companies should do their part to continue a fruitful dialogue where both parties can benefit from the collaboration.

The panelists also discussed the carbon neutrality challenge related to quantum computers and massive data servers. The consensus was that their usage must be carefully optimised to make the use as efficient as possible. Mikko noted that the quantum computers can be harnessed to solve many issues, including climate change.

Let’s get everyone on board

The discussions with insights from the workshops and audience could be concluded using a sandbox analogy:

In Finland, we sometimes are like two-year olds, who play side-by-side but their own games. We could grow up a few more years and start playing the same game. We do need children playing in sandboxes and companies who build the sandboxes, such as ecosystems. Children playing in sandboxes need parents, too. In the industry sector the government is the parent who sets the rules of the game — we need to get everyone on board.

In his closing words, Pekka Koponen emphasised how Finnish innovation environment has improved in the last couple of years. He said: "Business Finland's Veturi funding and supporting investments for pilots and demonstrations encourage industry-led ecosystems. VC funding has also increased heavily and are now producing great successes as recent stock listings of Modulight and Spinnova demonstrate. let’s remember that Finland is a great place to innovate and tell the story internationally as well."

At the end of the event, Pekka Koponen also announced that the nominations for the CTO of the Year 2022 are now open online.

Stay tuned for more information! In the meanwhile, you can already nominate your candidates as CTOs of the Year 2022 and as Innovation Professor of the Year 2022. The winners will be announced at the CTO Forum 2022 in March.

Nominate your candidates here

CTOs of the Year 2021 are Jyrki Ovaska of UPM and Duleepa Wijayawardhana of Supermetrics — Innovation Professor of the Year 2021 is Mikko Möttönen of Aalto University and VTT

Jyrki Ovaska, Duleepa Wijayawardhana and Mikko Möttönen

This year, the jury consisting of leading Finnish technology influencers selected EVP and CTO Jyrki Ovaska of UPM and CTO Duleepa Wijayawardhana of Supermetrics as the winners in the CTOs of the Year 2021 Awards. As a new recognition, the Innovation Professor of the Year 2021 was also awarded, and it was given to Professor Mikko Möttönen of Aalto University and VTT.

The CTO of the Year Awards are given by Technology Industries of Finland, Business Finland and innovation consulting company Spinverse to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers’ work on the future competitiveness of Finnish industry. This year, also the work of Innovation Professors collaborating with companies was recognised. The awards were published and given on the 16th of February 2021 at the CTO Forum, an event which this year was themed around digitalisation and sustainability.

The jury’s chairman Jaakko Hirvola from Technology Industries of Finland said: “The awarded CTOs and the Innovation Professor represent strong sustainable digital transformation in industry and services, enabled by bold R&D&I investments, long-term development work, know-how and top research supporting industry. When the operating environment is competitive and encouraging towards investments, the companies will take bold steps to invest and grow.”

UPM is tapping into sustainable future through innovations

Jyrki Ovaska, whose career in the forest industry expands to more than 30 years, was awarded the CTO of the Year 2021 in the large enterprise category. He has worked as the Chief Technology Officer of UPM forestry company since 2013. He has played a central role in the transition of UPM from a traditional paper company to an innovative actor, and his contribution has been remarkable in the development of investments and research projects based on wood biomass. Ovaska has held various key positions in the UPM paper business and in his current position as CTO, Ovaska is in charge of R&D, IPR, investment operations, and leadership for innovations and digital development.

Ovaska’s list on concrete examples regarding his work over the past 5-10 years is highly impressive. UPM has, among other things, initiated the production of biofuels in Lappeenranta in 2015 and generated new products where current raw materials and side streams are used in an innovative way. Ovaska and UPM have also created a new bio refinery concept producing renewable biochemicals, which is enabled by a 500 million € investment. Ovaska has also held positions of trust in Eurograph, AmCham Finland and CLIC Innovation. In addition, Ovaska was participating in the work of Research and Innovation Council when it set the target for Finland to invest four per cent of its GDP to R&D by 2030.

”I am delighted and humbled by this award. It is also a recognition to UPM which has transformed into a new-age bioforest products company. Innovation activity is not an end in itself, at the end of the day it is the results that matter. This can be measured by successful commercialization, scale up and profitable growth of novel businesses. There is a lot of discussion in the public about the R&D-spend but not enough is discussed about the impact achieved with these investments and how they are connected to the value generation of the company. Impact and relevance are the key,” Jyrki Ovaska emphasises.

Supermetrics — one of the most promising start-ups in Finland

In the small and mid-sized enterprise (SME) category, the CTO of the Year 2021 award was given to Duleepa Wijayawardhana. Duleepa joined Supermetrics as its CTO in 2017 upon his relocation to Finland from Canada. At the time, the company had just ten employees and one million € in turnover. Three years on and Supermetrics boasts 140 employees with over 13 million € in turnover (2019). Duleepa has made an enormous impact on the growth of the company in helping to develop and expand the Supermetrics product portfolio and R&D team to serve the growing number of global customers to meet their data analysis needs. The tools developed by Supermetrics help companies to analyse their marketing activities on various digital platforms.

Supermetrics is growing at a remarkable speed and attracts international investors and visibility. It has over 14,000 customers from all over the world, including large companies such as Canon, Dyson, Pfizer and Nestlé. Notably, Supermetrics was awarded the 2020 Internationalization Award for Finland.

Overseas top experts are very much in demand in Finland. Duleepa represents this group that Finland hopes to see grow in the future. Duleepa Wijayawardhana said: ”It is a great honor to represent Supermetrics’ talented developers and other team members, all of whose hard work is reflected in this award. Our international team consisting of over 20 different nationalities is a huge source of pride for me, and it has been amazing to witness the rapid growth of both these individuals and the company over the past four years. The best thing is that we are only starting our journey and wish to continue to be a positive force in the technology sector both in Finland and abroad.”

Innovation Professor of the Year 2021: At the top of quantum technologies

The renewed CTO Forum selected Professor Mikko Möttönen of VTT and Aalto University as the first Innovation Professor of the Year 2021. Möttönen is internationally known as being one of the leading researchers of quantum information and has engaged in remarkable work both in the theoretical and experimental research of quantum physics.

The breakthroughs in his research have enabled the development of commercial application using quantum computing. On the industry side, Möttönen is one of the four founders of IQM Finland, working as the leading scientist of the company. The company develops commercial quantum computers in Otaniemi, Espoo, and has successfully applied for more than 70 million € in public and private funding since 2017. The company was recently selected to deliver the first quantum computer in Finland.

Möttönen was taken aback on his recognition and said: “We are on the verge of the biggest technology transition of our times. I am very touched upon receiving this award and the large number of stakeholders who want to contribute to the development of quantum technologies.”
In selecting the Innovation Professor of the Year 2021, the jury evaluated the amount of funding Möttönen’s projects have received, collaboration with the industry, and the amount of new business and jobs created as a result of his research work. The achievements of Mikko Möttönen are remarkable indeed.

The Director General and CEO of Business Finland Nina Kopola welcomes the new award category: “The collaboration between companies and universities is at its best in ecosystems led by companies and where the professors have the full support of their organisation for the activities. It is important to have more and more of such collaboration in Finland.”

Great snapshot of Finnish innovation

Simo Säynevirta of ABB and Mats Sundell of Mirka were chosen as the finalists in the CTO of the Year 2021 Award in the large enterprise category, whereas in the SME category, Pasi Keinänen of Nanoksi Finland and Juha Alatalo of Finnos were nominated. The finalists in the Innovation Professor of the Year 2021 were professors Juha Pyrhönen of Lappeenranta University of Technology and Marjo Yliperttula of Aalto University.

”The winners and finalists for 2021 demonstrate an excellent representation of our innovation sector, offering a snapshot from the manufacturing industry to university spinoffs. We hope that they all inspire others to invest in innovations throughout these times of COVID-19 crisis,” sums up Spinverse founder Pekka Koponen, who has been part of the selection process for 11 times in a row.

More information: 

Full press release in English
Full press release in Finnish

The CTO of the Year Award is handed out for the 11th time this year. It is a recognition awarded to a chief technology officer who has improved the technologic competences and growth potential of their company or enterprise, is an inspiring leader, and an active participant in societal discussion. In 2021, the jury's chairman is Jaakko Hirvola from Technology Industries of Finland. Other members of the jury are Nina Kopola, Tomas Hedenborg, Jorma Turunen and the CTOs of the Year 2020 Jani Vilenius and Aki Mäkivirta. CTO Forum is a Finnish community of CTOs. It invites all innovation and technological officers of Finnish companies to network, discuss and share ideas between businesses. CTO Forum’s mission is to promote the work of CTOs and businesses. CTO Forum is organised and the award is handed out by Business Finland, Technology Industries of Finland and Spinverse.

Cross-industry CTO Forum brings together Finnish technology leaders on 16th February

The annual CTO Forum co-organised by Business Finland, Technology Industries of Finland and Spinverse is approaching on the 16th February, 2021. The spring event boasts interesting keynotes about sustainability and green digitalisation from ABB and SSAB, and award ceremonies for CTOs of the Year 2021 and Innovation Professor of the Year 2021.

In our event, we will deepen the important theme of green and digital growth. We are excited to introduce our Keynote speakers Amina Hamidi from ABB and Martin Pei from SSAB, who will share their own success stories on how to make it happen through digitalisation and sustainability.

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Amina Hamidi is CTO of ABB Electrification and was named 2019 European CTO of the Year. Throughout her career, from her start as a research scientist at ABB in 1998 to her appointment as CTO in 2017, she has aspired to leave a better world for the generations to come. Her focus is on innovative electrification and digital technologies to make our cities and societies safer, smarter and more sustainable. In her keynote, she will discuss about talking buildings, thinking grids and electric vehicles that will power up cities of the future.

Martin Pei is Executive Vice President and CTO at SSAB AB. He joined SSAB over 19 years ago. Martin Pei is the initiator of the joint Swedish industrial project HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology) between SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall. The project partners aim to drastically reduce the carbon emissions in the steel industry by adopting a new hydrogen technology. In his Keynote, Martin Pei will share the story on how SSAB has taken ambitious steps in developing a fossil-free, sustainable technology for one of the most polluting industries.

Welcome to join the virtual event to learn about the hot topics for Industries in 2021!

The CTO Forum is a community for technology leaders to learn from their peers and benchmark against the best practices in the field. In the new CTO Forum format, we will also hear the final results of the CTO Survey that were discussed at the autumn event. The evening culminates in the award ceremony of the CTOs of the Year 2021 and the first Innovation Professor of the Year.

We are looking forward to a great and inspiring online event, which you can safely join from the comfort of your own office. As we are virtual this spring, we do not need to limit the number of participants. 

Programme:

15:30 Event starts & welcome words
           Pekka Koponen, Founder & Chairman, Spinverse Oy
           Jaakko Hirvola, CEO, Technology Industries of Finland
           Nina Kopola, Director General, Business Finland
15:50  Keynote session: Safe, Smart and Sustainable Societies of the Future:
            From talking buildings and thinking grids to E-vehicles that power up cities
         Amina Hamidi, CTO, ABB Electrification, CTO of the Year Europe 2019
16:10  Keynote Session: Towards a fossil-free steel industry:
            Martin Pei, Executive Vice President & CTO, SSAB AB
16:30  CTO Survey 2020 results
           Pekka Koponen, Founder & Chairman, Spinverse Oy
16:40  Q&A
16:50  CTO of the Year Finland 2021
           Jaakko Hirvola, Chairman of the Jury
           Speeches from the winners in LE and SME categories
17:10   Innovation Professor of the Year 2021 
           Speech from the winner    
17:20 Event ends

Let's see online on the 16th of February!

How we use data is evolving

The 2019 CTO Survey revealed that the way Finnish companies utilise data is changing.

Data is the fuel which runs businesses, but that fuel is now being used in new ways. CTOs of Finnish companies report changes in how and why they utilise data.

“Two years ago CTOs said their main focus was on the cloud, followed by big data and AI. Now those priorities are reversed. AI is the priority, followed by big data and the cloud,” says Pekka Sivonen, Executive Director, Digital Transformation of Finnish Industries at Business Finland. “This could be an indication that the cloud enabled us to get data and now we are focusing on using it with the help of AI.”

The theme of the 2019 CTO survey is Data on the move. Respondents came from all sizes of companies in a wide diversity of industries. The survey was conducted by innovation consulting company Spinverse with Business Finland and Technology Industries of Finland.

Importance of customer experience is rising amongst the CTOs

More than eight out of every ten CTOs say data is part of their strategy and that they also use external data. External data is primarily used for the development of core products and services, followed by enhancing company processes. 

The third most cited goal for the use of external data is enhancing the customer experience, but this is likely to increase in importance because 73% report this will be the main focus over the next year. This underlines a trend for companies to focus on the benefits of digitalisation, not the technology itself. 

Public data is used by 68% of respondents. While the development of core products and services remain the number one use of public data, business intelligence surges into second place. This is likely due to the nature of public data, which is better suited for wide economic applications.
 

Rise of ecosystems 

Ecosystems are growing in importance for Finnish companies, with 87% of CTOs reporting they operate in them. Many CTOs complained of a lack of openness and the need to change the business culture in order to better share data. They were also not afraid of a little self-criticism: a quarter of respondents do not highly rate their own organisation’s capabilities to work in ecosystems and share data.

“There are still major question marks regarding data ownership, IPR and technical standards on using and sharing data,” Laura Koponen, Managing Director at Spinverse explains. “Some of this is being addressed, such as with the MyData movement, but CTOs say improvements are needed. SMEs in particular feel this is a pressing issue.” 

SMEs are more confident than large companies in their ability to work in ecosystems and exploit external data. All SMEs who responded say they utilise data from external sources, and over three-quarters say they use public data in their operations. 

Larger companies are investing in data utilisation to build a competitive advantage, but smaller businesses say they aim to find new solutions for customers. New business opportunities, more versatile products and an improved customer experience are the top three benefits cited for data utilisation.
 

Help wanted: R&D specialists 

There are indications that R&D is currently under pressure. More CTOs say their R&D budgets have been cut this year compared to last year’s survey. 

However, the pressure on R&D is not having an impact on hiring: over half of respondents say they are increasing their R&D headcount this year. Many CTOs say that finding good talent is a challenge. 

“There is optimism for the future,” says Jaakko Hirvola, CEO at Technology Industries of Finland. “About half of CTOs believe their R&D budgets will increase in 2020, and over half say they will continue to hire more people.”

The results were published 5.11.2019 at the CTO Forum organised by Spinverse, Business Finland and Technology Industries of Finland.  The CTO Forum is a community for CTOs and technology leaders to learn from their peers and benchmark against the best practices in the field. It provides a platform for networking across different industries and for companies of all sizes, raises the awareness of Finnish technology leadership and promotes visibility of CTOs and their companies.

Artificial Intelligence seen as the most interesting world changing technology

AI, and particularly neural networks and deep learning, are the most interesting technologies of the future, according to Finnish Chief Technology Officers. They also put circular economy and new battery technologies in the top three. These and other results of the annual CTO Survey were published on November 5, 2018 in CTO Forum, the top event for Finnish technology influencers arranged by Spinverse with Business Finland and Technology Industries of Finland.

This year the CTO Survey mapped which Radical technologies are the most interesting and in which areas Finland could have a competitive edge. The CTO’s were also asked which areas state and other research institutes should allocate  their research and development investments.

The survey was conducted by innovation consulting company Spinverse together with Business Finland and Technology Industries of Finland. The theme was based on an extensive report, A hundred new opportunities for Finland 2018 – 2037, which introduced 100 radical technologies that may trigger systemic social changes. It was commissioned by the Committee of the Future of the Parliament of Finland and written by Risto Linturi and Osmo Kuusi.

More attractive investment environment needed

Spinverse has conducted annual CTO surveys since 2010.  Some 70 Finnish Chief Technology Officers responded to the 2018 survey. Twenty of the largest R&D investors of the country were included among the respondents.

”The feedback predicts growth for next year for both product development investment and recruitment,” summarizes Spinverse Chairman of the board Pekka Koponen. “The responders’ companies represent nearly 90 percent of all research and development investments made in Finland.”

According to Statistics Finland, R&D investments in Finland in 2017 showed weak growth after six years of decline. The additional €100m annual funding for innovations by the Finnish government is a small step in the right direction.

However, the CEO of Technology Industries of Finland, Jaakko Hirvola, emphasizes that in proportion to GNP, incentives for R&D investment are still considerably smaller in Finland compared to other Nordic countries.

”In spite of these small glimmers of hope, all economic forecasts predict challenging times ahead. The only sensible way to tackle this is to make the investing environment more attractive and to raise public R&D&I investments to an entirely new level. Product development is now more important than ever as all companies are transforming into digital companies.”

"The next Finnish government must carry their responsibility for the competitiveness of our operating environment,” Hirvola emphasizes.

New technologies require new competence

Artificial intelligence in its various applications stood out as the most interesting area of new technology by all respondents, regardless of their business area.  AI was followed by circular economy and new fractioning technologies, as well as the new battery and capacitor technologies, as areas of interest. The respondents also proposed other new technologies, such as intelligent production systems, automated and autonomous machines and lignin-based chemistry and materials.

”Most companies have understood that AI will have an impact on them in the near future, and they are preparing for that inevitability by developing their competences in this area. Out of all the programs Business Finland provides, funding demand has been the highest for the AI Business program. That’s followed by bio economy and circular economy programs, which areas were also noted in the CTO Survey,” says Executive Director Teija Lahti-Nuuttila from Business Finland. 

Discussion platform for technology influencers

The one hundred radical technologies, classified into ten technology areas, were delivered to the respondents in a gamified, easily approachable way using a digital innovating platform developed by Spinverse and Finnish start-up Viima.

“Going forward, the platform is meant to be a permanent and expanding forum for ideation and discussion for technology experts from different areas of business,” says Pekka Koponen.

A summary of the survey results can be found here

Read also: Tekoäly, kiertotalous ja akut – suomalais-CTO:t poimivat maailmaa mullistavat teknologiat, Tekniikka&Talous 6.11.2018

For further information please contact:

Business Finland, Executive director Teija Lahti-Nuuttila
teija.lahti-nuuttila@businessfinland.fi, tel. +358 50 5577873

Teknologiateollisuus, CEO Jaakko Hirvola
jaakko.hirvola@teknologiateollisuus.fi,  tel. +358 400 633 751

Spinverse, Chairman of the board Pekka Koponen
Pekka.koponen@spinverse.com, tel. +358 40 545 0008

Finland’s CTOs of the Year announced: Vesa Varjonen of Planmeca and Matti Heikkilä of MetGen have contributed to the renewal of Finnish industry

Vesa Varjonen, Vice President of Research and Technology at Planmeca and Matti Heikkilä, CTO of MetGen have been chosen as CTOs of the Year 2018.  The jury consisting of leading Finnish technology influencers emphasized the significant role of the awarded CTOS on renewal of the industry. The CTO of the Year Awards are given by Spinverse together with Technology Industries of Finland and Business Finland to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers work on the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. 

The CTO of the year award has been given to selected CTOs in Finland since 2011. This year, the winners will be celebrated at the CTO Forum and CTO Awards Gala at Restaurant Palace, Helsinki on March 19th.  The emphasis for deciding the winners for 2018 was on companies that have renewed the Finnish industry with the actions. “Finnish industry is experiencing strong transformation and on the other hand SMEs have got an important role in boosting new businesses. Planmeca and MetGen are prime examples of these: through systematic investments in R&D and exploitation of digitalization Planmeca has created innovations that have renewed the whole sector. MetGen in turn has had the courage to develop a completely new technology for global markets and has been able to build an impressive partner network” describes the Chairperson of the Jury, Laura Juvonen of Technology Industries of Finland.

Exporting Finnish healthcare technology globally: Planmeca

Planmeca, founded in 1971, is one of the world’s leading producers of dental equipment, with products distributed in over 120 countries worldwide. As an R&D intensive healthcare technology company dynamically developing the world’s leading technologies it serves as a role model for the renewal of the Finnish manufacturing industry. “As a company, Planmeca is never ’ready’ nor do our products ever stop developing. Without this mentality innovation in the company would die” says the founder and CEO of Planmeca, Heikki Kyöstilä. The healthcare technology sector is growing in Finland and most of its turnover comes from exports.

Vesa Varjonen has worked for over 25 years in various roles in medical imaging. He has worked at Planmeca since 2004, and became the Vice President in research and technology in 2015. “The desire for growth and motivation arise from the power of example, manifested by role models like Vesa Varjonen. He shows the combination of strong knowledge, deep understanding of different technologies and research fields and years of experience”, describes Kyöstilä. “In a fast-developing world, the importance of cooperation with different partners e.g. universities, research groups and startups is of great importance, and here Vesa’s active role has been crucial.”

Varjonen has a Master of Science degree in Medical Technology, Applied Electronics and Computer Technology. “In the Jury’s discussions it was also emphasized how important multidisciplinary education and knowledge is for the development of future technologies“, states Juvonen.

A new force catalyzing renewal: MetGen

MetGen excels in tailor-made industrial enzymatic solutions for the energy, renewable chemicals, and pulp&paper industries. The “ace” of this cleantech-company is the genetic tailoring of its enzymes, which makes them work effectively in demanding conditions. Though a small company MetGen has been able to build extensive partnerships and win a substantial amount of public funding to develop and pilot novel, sustainable  and resource-efficient solutions for several industrial processes with its partners.

”CTO Matti Heikkilä is an excellent networker. He is not afraid to approach even the big players, which is an important trait for a fast-growing SME. Heikkilä is a role model for other SME CTOs in showing how new ecosystems are built benefitting from EU funding and how Finland is renewed through the creation of new, sustainable solutions for industry”, highlights Juvonen.

One of MetGen’s strengths is to bring new solutions from the laboratory to industrial applications effectively. “In practice Matti has created a whole value chain from scratch. He continues to strive in creating new technologies supporting new business” says Alex Michine, CEO of MetGen. The company’s product development platform is one of Heikkilä’s merits – with the platform MetGen can bring new products to the markets in less than five months from the initial idea, which makes it the world leader in its sector. With Heikkilä’s lead the emissions in the production process have been minimized in practice down to zero.

Heikkilä is also responsible for marketing and new business development. “The ecosystems built by Matti maximise the benefits of all parties. He has an incredible ability to shape whole industries with his vision” adds Michine. “It’s amazing how well he manages to share our vision internally as well as among financiers, especially in such a complex field as ours.”  

This year, Finnish CTO of the Year prize is awarded for the eight time to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers to the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. The CTO of the Year is an inspiring leader and has an active role in the society. The awardees are chosen by a jury consisting of leading technology experts in Finland. The chairman of the jury is Director Laura Juvonen, Technology Industries of Finland. The CTO Forum is a community of Chief Technology Officers and technology leaders to learn from their peers and benchmark against the best practices in the field. The Forum provides a platform for networking across different industries and for companies of all sizes, raises the awareness of Finnish technology leadership and promotes visibility of CTOs and their companies. CTO Forum and the CTO of the Year Award is organised in collaboration with Business Finland, Technology Industries of Finland and Spinverse.

Who will follow in the footsteps of Reijo Salonen, Orion and Reetta Kivelä, Gold&Green Foods as CTOs of the Year 2018 in Finland?

Do you know an exceptional CTO in Finland? We are now looking for nominations to find the CTO who is the most inspiring team-builder and leader, who adds significant value to the company through technology.  you can submit your nomination at http://www.ctoforum.fi/nominate. Anyone who is responsible for their company’s technology in Finland is eligible. The complete list of selection criteria can be read here.

Since 2011, the award has been given annually to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers to the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. In 2017 the winners were Reijo Salonen from Orion and Reetta Kivelä from Gold&Green Foods. The complete list of winners throughout the years can be found here.

The winners of the CTO of the Year 2018 award will be announced in early spring in Helsinki.

New competencies needed as digitalisation advances in Finnish industry

Companies are now investing in digitalisation due to the competitive advantage and customer value it brings and not due to cost savings. Finnish CTOs believe that the key challenge in digitalisation is to develop related knowledge and skills. The latest CTO Survey conducted by Spinverse, Tekes and Technology Industries of Finland focused on how digitalisation transforms Finnish companies.

Most (67%) of the Finnish technology leaders who participated in the survey believe that digitalisation requires novel know-how from current and future employees. Three out of five agree that the development of knowledge and skills is the key enabler of digitalisation in companies. Still, less than a fifth of companies have invested in related training for their employees.

“The unprecedented pace of change, advances in technology and new revenue models set new standards for the needed competencies. The contribution from companies and education on all levels are necessary to fill the skills gap. We have to try harder to remain at the cutting edge”, says Risto Siilasmaa, chairman of Technology Industries of Finland.

Aiming for added value for customers – new actors and business models, a threat and an opportunity

Most companies have already included digitalisation in their strategy. It is noteworthy that instead of cost savings, the majority of respondents (70%) prioritise adding value for customers and the development of new business models. The results of the survey show that especially a diverse product portfolio and new services create competitive advantage.

Three out of four companies consider new competitors and new business models as the main threats for their current business. Most respondents believe that there is currently no leading platform in their industry, but a third estimates that such a platform will be established in 2-3 years time.

“Companies need to change, as success and competitiveness will not be based on business-as-usual. Companies need to constantly ask themselves which business they are in. Change emerges from the willingness to understand the future and the ability to try and learn”, notes Jyrki Ovaska, CTO of UPM.

"The industrial digitalisation platforms are still developing. The solutions are industry-driven and we won't necessarily even see dominant Google-like players emerge at all. There are plenty of opportunities still for Finnish companies - even to become a global leader," comments Pekka Koponen, CEO, Spinverse.

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CTOs are growing their  R&D budgets

It is apparent from this year's survey that a growing amount of companies are investing in R&D activities in 2017 more than in the previous five years. 49% of the respondents say that their R&D budgets will grow during 2017, while only 11% say that there will be budget cuts. The positive trend seems to grow stronger in 2018.

The CTO Survey was responded by 96 Finnish CTOs, widely representing the Finnish industry. 54% of the respondents were from SMEs and the rest form large companies. The survey covered a broad range of sectors, the largest of which was ICT and electronics (39% of respondents).

The results were published 25.10.2017 in the CTO Forum organized by Spinverse, Tekes and Technology Industries of Finland.  The CTO Forum is a community for CTOs and technology leaders to learn from their peers and benchmark against the best practices in the field. It provides a platform for networking across different industries and for companies of all sizes, raises the awareness of Finnish technology leadership and promotes visibility of CTOs and their companies.

A summary of the survey results here.

Read Tekniikka & talous news on the topic (in Finnish).

Finland’s CTOs of the Year 2017: Reijo Salonen, Orion and Reetta Kivelä, Gold&Green Foods

Reijo Salonen, Senior Vice President of Research and Development of Pharmaceuticals and Chief Medical Officer from Orion and Reetta Kivelä, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer from Gold&Green Foods have been elected as Finland’s CTOs of the Year 2017. In the selection process, the emphasis was put on companies with significant societal impact. “Election of the awardees was exceptionally unanimous this year. Salonen and Kivelä have both shown their remarkable contribution to their companies and to their societal networks”, says Chairman of the Jury Harri Kerminen. CTO of the Year award is a joint undertaking by Tekes and Spinverse.

The award has been given to CTOs in Finland since 2010. Once again the jury decided to award winners from two categories: SMEs and large corporations. In the corporations’ category, Orion’s impact on Finnish pharmaceutical research and development gained the jury’s attention. Orion develops, manufactures and markets human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, active pharmaceutical ingredients and diagnostic tests and is a clear market leader in Finland. In the SME category, Gold&Green Foods stood out from the other candidates. Gold&Green Foods was established in 2015 and their first product, Pulled Oats™, attracted wide attention even before reaching the stores in May 2016. Pulled Oats™ hits the focal point of global megatrends; it is simple and easy-to-use alternative in cooking but it also addresses the rising concern of environmental pressure caused by meat production.

“Gold&Green Foods’ products are an answer to a greater global challenge, whereas the economic and research development at Orion have been exceptional during the last 10 years. This years’ winners present fundamentally different industries in comparison to the previous winners. This is the first time the awardees are from the food and pharmaceutical industries. The jury’s view is that both companies’ business combine significant technological and societal aspects”, Kerminen concludes.

Thriving innovation culture through organizational transformation in the pharmaceutical industry

Reijo Salonen was appointed as Senior Vice President, Research and Development of Pharmaceuticals in 2006. Before that, he held senior research positions at GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. At the time, Orion was facing a challenging situation in R&D and the company was lagging behind major multinational pharmaceutical corporations. Reijo Salonen led the organizational culture change of the entire R&D department towards a more open, transparent and enthusiastic culture in all R&D activities. His solid experience and broad networks contributed to the positive development of Orion’s business and profits – not to mention the positive effects of new medicines to the world.

Organizational transformation enabled establishing open innovation processes in the company. At the same time as Orion focused its internal efforts in gaining competitive advantage, the company adopted a strategic approach to outsourcing research of its non-core activities and started conducting research projects as external scientific collaborations on a global level. With the help of the broad collaboration networks, Orion’s resources and competences grew. An example of Orion’s R&D achievement is the medicinal treatment for the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, which The Chemical Industry Federation of Finland granted the 2014 Innovation Award. Another achievement from Orion’s R&D is the novel prostate cancer treatment, which was among the five finalists in the Innovation Award in 2016. Orion aims to bring the prostate cancer treatment to markets by 2019 and the Alzheimer’s disease treatment later on.

“The organisational change took some effort and now we can see the its results in the development of innovative products. It is exciting to see that our success has been acknowledged more widely”, Salonen comments.

Solution to the environmental challenges of meat production

Reetta Kivelä has been the CTO of Gold&Green Foods since its establishment. The core idea of Gold&Green Foods is sustainability and an innovation that utilises Finnish ingredients and has global markets. Gold&Green Foods has received several recognitions. In 2016, the company was awarded as the best Finnish innovation and took the lead in the society-category at Productive Idea Competition. Pulled Oats™ in turn was selected as the food phenomenon of the year. In autumn 2016, Paulig Group acquired 51 % of Gold&Green Foods shares to improve production capacity and international commercialisation of Pulled Oats™.

Pulled Oats™ is a result of Kivelä’s development work and she was chosen as Finnish Young Researcher Entrepreneur 2015. The idea of Pulled Oats™ came from the CEO of Gold&Green Foods Maija Itkonen, who proposed to Kivelä her idea of a plant based protein with oat as a main ingredient. Kivelä’s previous work had focused precisely on research and processing of oat fiber’s beta-glucan.

“It is great that Pulled Oats™ gains recognition. CTO of the Year award is a recognition for the entire Gold&Green Food product development team, not only a personal achievement. During the last years, health and nutrition awareness has increased and therein lies the key for solving some of the great challenges we face globally. The food industry is going through revolutionary times and Pulled Oats™ might be a key element in it”, Reetta Kivelä comments.

This year, Finnish CTO of the Year prize is awarded for the seventh to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers to the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. The CTO of the Year is an inspiring leader and has an active role in the society. The awardees are chosen by a jury consisting of leading technology experts in Finland. The chairman of the jury is Harri Kerminen. The CTO Forum is a community of Chief Technology Officers and technology leaders to learn from their peers and benchmark against the best practices in the field. The Forum provides a platform for networking across different industries and for companies of all sizes, raises the awareness of Finnish technology leadership and promotes visibility of CTOs and their companies. CTO Forum and the CTO of the Year Award is organised in collaboration with Tekes and Spinverse.

2016 CTO Survey: The world is moving towards Open Innovation 2.0 - where is Finland?

The term “Open Innovation” was originally coined in 2003, and refers to the paradigm where ideas pass between different organisations to create value. Since the 2010s innovation efforts have moved towards Open Innovation 2.0, where shared added value is created together with different actors in an ecosystem. According to Spinverse's latest CTO Survey, Finnish companies have acknowledged Open Innovation 2.0 and there is a willingness for its implementation. In practice the innovation efforts are still closer to the original principles of open innovation, rather than OI 2.0.

The benefits of developing together in Open Innovation have given organisations the chance to develop products and services, which they wouldn't have the resources to do on their own. Competitive advantage and success can be seen as a result of the strength of the ecosystem, not of the individual company.

In the 2010s the former Intel Labs Europe CTO Martin Curley brought to the wider audience the concept of Open Innovation 2.0. In this advanced mode of OI, it is not enough for the the organisations to look beyond their own borders, but to implement cross-sectoral co-operation to create shared value-added together with different actors, to foster the ecosystem and to ensure the adoption of new technologies and innovation in the ecosystem.

With Martin Curley's leadership, Intel Labs Europe was the forerunner in Open Innovation 2.0 by building a European wide co-operation network, which comprises of tens of R&D centers and a wide range of researchers. Currently Martin Curley is a Professor of Open Innovation and he was awarded as the European CTO ofthe year 2015.

"It is not enough that organisations just look beyond their borders. They must actively seek cooperation with different actors. To come up with solutions to major challenges, we must build completely new ecosystems, where innovations are created together, according to set rules and by sharing the risk" states Curley.

Finland lagging behind

Theresults of 2016 CTO-Survey conducted by Spinverse show that CTOs in Finland are aware of OI 2.0 and are intent to implement its principles. As many as three quarters of the respondents felt that involving the customers and doing development together across organisations and industry borders, and the open sharing of ideas, is a part of successful open innovation.

At Kone - globally recognised for its innovativeness - open innovation is part of the corporate culture. "Part of open innovation is that even the CEO is an active networker" comments Tomio Pihkala, the CTO of Kone.

According to the survey, 90% of the respondents say that the organisation they represent is capable of collaborating with partners and customers. Finnish companies believe that sharing ideas openly with outside partners will lead to success.

"In practice, the innovation efforts still remain closer to the original principles of open innovation, where cooperation circles around the organisation's own targets and ideas and not of those of the ecosystem." says Laura Koponen, Managing Director of Spinverse Innovation Management.

The majority of companies engage their current customers in collaboration and they know how to work together successfully.

Short-term R&D investments grow

Those responsible for the R&D in Finnish organisations are faced with a new situation due to the austerity measures on public R&D funding introduced by the Finnish government. Due to this, companies have even increased their own R&D budgets but at the same time are focusing on short-term R&D activities. This becomes evident from the latest CTO Survey. According to the respondents, there is pressure to get new products out onto the market. Around half of the organisations say they expect a positive result from new innovations already during the coming year. While there is pressure for ever faster R&D efforts, CTOs are concerned about how to keep the equilibrium between short-term and long-term R&D.

70 CTOs in Finland answered the CTO Survey with around half of the respondents were from large corporations, Among the respondents are 16 out of the 20 biggest R&D investors in Finland.

View the results of the 2016 CTO Survey

Finland's CTOs of the Year 2016 awarded: Antti Nivala, M-Files, and Ilari Kallio, Wärtsilä

Ilari Kallio, Vice President R&D from Wärtsilä and Antti Nivala, Founder and CTO from M-Files have been elected as the Finnish CTO of the Year 2016 awardees. The CTO of the Year title is awarded annually to a CTO who has had a positive impact on the growth and technology of the CTO’s company, acts as an inspiring leader, and has an active role in the society.

The award is a joint undertaking by Tekes and Spinverse. A high-profile jury, consisting of members of the Finnish technology industries, selects the awardees. This is the sixth time that CTO of the Year award is given out.

The jury decided to elect awardees from two categories: SMEs and large corporations. The role of a CTO is drastically different in SMEs in comparison to large corporations. This was the second time winners were chosen from two categories.

In the awardee election, the emphasis was put on radical innovations. “The winners are two people who have done a great contribution to their companies with radical product innovations. The companies are also demonstrating international growth,” the chairman of the jury, professor Yrjö Neuvo comments on the election. M-Files is an innovative software company designing document and information management solutions to corporations. M-Files products are based on efficient use of metadata. Wärtsilä is a corporation that delivers power solutions for the marine and energy markets. Wärtsilä has developed the world’s most energy-efficient engine: Wärtsilä 31 can be found in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Both M-Files and Wärtsilä try to solve problems of the modern age. “M-Files brings solutions for knowledge workers in their day-to-day struggle of keeping information organized, and Wärtsilä empowers the players in energy and marine industries with flexible and energy-efficient ship and power plant solutions. CTOs in all industries have an important role enabling their companies to renew themselves”, summarises professor Neuvo.

The renewer of information management

Antti Nivala has worked as the CTO of M-Files from 2013. Previously from 2005 to 2013, Nivala acted as the CEO of the company founded by him. Since then he has concentrated on the product development of the company as the CTO.  His work has made great progress as the M-Files information management software is currently used in thousands of companies all across the globe. M-Files is quickly growing to be the market leader in metadata-based information management. M-Files has received many acknowledgements for its superiority, one of the most prestigious distinctions being the Millennium Distinction awarded by the Technology Academy of Finland. World-leading market research organizations have praised M-Files’ software as a forerunner with unparalleled usability.

Antti Nivala has played a great role in the development of M-Files. Previously known as Motive Systems, M-Files ended up developing information management software when Nivala felt sufficient software for keeping the ceaseless flow of information did not exist. Nivala and his team decided to create a completely new system. Soon they found out that other companies are struggling with the same issues. As the result of a successful commercialization the M-Files software was created. Currently M-Files Corporation employs over 300 people. ”Programming and utilising technology to solve practical problems has always been very natural for me. It has been fantastic to see how our brilliant team has been building our company and our products to world fame,” comments Antti Nivala.

World’s most energy efficient engine

Ilari Kallio joined Wärtsilä in 2006, and from 2014 he has acted as the Vice President in R&D. As the chairman of CLIC Innovation Ltd. he has an important role in the Finnish R&D community. At Wärtsilä, or anywhere else, innovations aren’t born by sitting alone in a conference room, but in collaboration; Ilari Kallio has been described as an excellent networker and an active member of the R&D community.

With the support of Kallio, Wärtsilä has been able to stay on the top of the tide of megatrends, utilising digitalisation and cleantech. Wärtsilä engine control the markets. Wärtsilä’s competitiveness is also built on a strong portfolio of maintenance services. “Leading an R&D organization in a large corporation is a challenging task where you need to have a sound understanding in leading people and in the technology you are dealing with. The R&D activities are essential in a large corporation to sustain the competitiveness, and our R&D team deserves to be acknowledged,” says Ilari Kallio.

CTOs of the Year with jury and organiser representatives: Reijo Kangas, Tekes; Pekka Koponen, Spinverse; Antti Nivala, M-Files; Atte Palomäki on behalf of Ilari Kallio, Wärtsilä; Tarja Pääkkönen, member of the jury; Harri Kerminen, member of the jury

More information

Chairman of the CTO of the Year professor Yrjö Neuvo, tel. +358 400 740 300

Wärtsilä Oy                                                               M-Files Oy
Ilari Kallio                                                                    Antti Nivala
Vice President, R&D                                                  Founder, CTO
ilari.kallio@wartsila.com                                           antti.nivala@m-files.com
+358 400 705050                                                      +358 40 556 0471

Sari Luhanka                                                              Sirpa Levola
Manager, Global Media Relations                          Communications and Marketing Manager
sari.luhanka@wartsila.com                                      sirpa.levola@m-files.com
+358 50 3860 353                                                     +358 50 4040 734

Tekes                                                                           Spinverse
Reijo Kangas                                                               Pekka Koponen
Executive Director, Growth companies                  Founder, CEO
reijo.kangas@tekes.fi                                                 pekka.koponen@spinverse.com
+358 50 5577 892                                                      +358 40 545 0008

Who will be Finland's CTO of the Year 2016?

Finland's CTO of the Year 2016 will be awarded on the 16th of February in Helsinki. Who will be awarded? In 2015, Jussi Pyörre from Eniram Oy and Juha Inberg from Ponsse Plc were chosen as the recipients of the CTO of the Year 2015 award. The title, CTO of the Year, is awarded annually to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers to the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. The CTO of the Year is an inspiring team-builder and leader, adds significant value to the company through technology, and communicates the benefits of technology to all stakeholders in an understandable way.

The complete list of winners of Finland's CTO of the Year award

Nominate your candidate for the CTO of the Year 2016

The time to nominate your candidate for the CTO of the Year 2016 is now. The nomination period is open until the 15th of December 2015 at www.ctoforum.fi/nominate. The CTO of the Year is an inspiring team-builder and leader, adds significant value to the company through technology, and communicates the benefits of technology to all stakeholders in an understandable way. You can nominate anyone who is responsible for their company’s technology in Finland. See the complete list of selection criteria.

The title of the CTO of the Year is awarded annually to highlight the importance of Chief Technology Officers to the future competitiveness of Finnish industries. The winner of the CTO of the Year 2016 award will be announced on the 16th of February 2016 in Helsinki.

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The CTO of the Year 2015 award was given to Jussi Pyörre, Eniram Oy, and Juha Inberg, Ponsse Plc.