Risto Siilasmaa

Risto Kalevi Siilasmaa (born 1966 in Finland) is the Chairman, founder and former CEO of F-Secure Corporation (formerly Data Fellows), an anti-virus and computer security software company based in Helsinki, Finland.^[1] He is also the biggest shareholder of F-Secure, owning around 40% of the company. A member of Nokia's Board of Directors since 2008, he has been its Chairman from 2012 onwards, as well as Nokia's interim CEO from 3 September 2013 to 29 April 2014. ^[2][3]

After being appointed chairman of Nokia in mid-2012, he has led the company in one of the most successful corporate transformations ever. Through three transactions that he negotiated - the purchase of complete ownership of NSN, the sale of the handset business to Microsoft and the recently announced acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent - Nokia has transformed from a bankruptcy candidate to a successful global technology leader. This is reflected in Nokia's value which has gone up fivefold over roughly two years. Even more revealingly, the enterprise value has grown from a low of only less than 1.5 billion euros soon after Siilasmaa started as chairman to well over 20 billion euros in early 2015.

The transformation of Nokia has also included Siilasmaa renewing the board and the management. Actually, only the company CFO Timo Ihamuotila is left from the previous phase of the company. Siilasmaa has often stated that all the atoms in Nokia have been changed but the spirit of the 150-year-old company live on.

Siilasmaa is also well known as a business angel, investing in several technology startups such as Frosmo, Enevo and Wolt, and serving in their boards of directors.^[4][5][6] In his investing, he has stated that he is sometimes "motivated by soft values, not maximum returns."^[7]

Education

Siilasmaa has a Master of Science degree from Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.^[1]

References

1. "Risto Siilasmaa Bio at Nokia". Nokia Corporation. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
2. Meet the board Nokia Corporation. Retr. 27th Nov 2012
3. "Nokia to sell Devices & Services business to Microsoft in EUR 5.44 billion all-cash transaction". Nokia. 2013-09-03. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
4. "F-Securen Siilasmaa ryhtyi bisnesenkeliksi" (in Finnish). Digitoday. 2007-03-30. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
5. "LinkedIn: Risto Siilasmaa". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
6. "Risto Siilasmaa - Investments". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
7. Cord, David J. (2012). Mohamed 2.0. Helsingfors: Schildts & Söderströms. pp. 150–152. ISBN 978-951-52-2898-7.