Author

Pekka A. Viljakainen

The author Pekka Viljakainen has spent the past 20 years as an ambassador between business executives and technology teams. With a background in engineering from the University of Technology Lappeenranta, Pekka began his career as an entrepreneur in 1986 by establishing Oy Visual Systems Ltd.

In 1998 Pekka joined Tieto through the acquisition of his company. There, Pekka's reputation and track record for handling very complex governance and political topics inside large international organizations and delivering results earned him the nickname "Bulldozer".

Thanks to his technical background and passion for business, Pekka has been one of the leading architects within Tieto for building a more efficient information society.  He is heavily involved in promoting the necessary preparations for a true revolution of services, and the strategic role of digitalization across Europe, Russia and China.  As a true partner for organizations in most industries, He has analyzed the fundamental changes in consumer behavior and their implications for corporate strategies in all information intensive businesses. His team consisted of 8350 people in 24 countries of Tieto International.

Starting from 1st of November 2010, Pekka made the decision to step down from his operational roles. Prior to his return to business, he will focus his time on his family and charity projects. The winter of 2011 will be spent devoted to supporting the No-Fear project with its global network of executives.

Co-Author

Mark Mueller-Eberstein

Mark Müller-Eberstein

Mark Müller- Eberstein is the author of “Agility: Competing and Winning in the Tech ‐Savvy Marketplace“ (Wiley, 2010) and has over 15 years of global experience in the IT industry working with companies and governments to choose, adopt, roll- out and measure the impact of new technologies.

He is the CEO of Adgetec Corporation and has spoken and coached leaders across the globe on this topic with hands‐on experience in Europe, Asia and the Americas. He has always been fascinated by the importance of combining human and technical factors to fundamentally improve businesses. A passion he nurtured during his previous leadership positions in Microsoft and HP as well.

Mark lives near Seattle and speaks German and English fluently. He received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Technology in Berlin and also studied at the University of Marburg in his native country of Germany.

Arkady Dvorkovich

Аркадий Владимирович Дворкович

Arkady Dvorkovich, a recognized Russian economist has been appointed the Aide to the President of the Russian Federation in May 2008. He was also selected by President Medvedev to be the `Russian Sherpa ́ to the G8 and G20.Fluent in both English and German, Dvorkovich has always played a prominent role as an international voice in the Russian economic policy. Being responsible for economic affairs, both internal and international, he is the one to push forward President Medvedev's plans of Russia's economic modernization.

A master degree recipient from the Duke University, Moscow State University as well as Moscow’s New School of Economics, Dvorkovich began his work in the Russian government in 1994 as an advisor and then as head of the Economic Expert Group of Russia’s Ministry of Finance. From 2000 Dvorkovich worked both as an expert at the Strategic Development Centre and as an advisor to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade until in 2001 he was designated Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade. In 2004 Dvorkovich moved on to the Presidential Executive Office as Head of the Presidential Expert’s Directorate. Here he served until May 2008 when he was appointed to his current position.

Victor Orlovsky

Орловский Виктор Михайлович

As Senior Vice President and CIO of Sberbank, Victor Orlovsky, has an extensive record of expertise in both the Russian and international finance and banking sectors. Recognized for his knowledge, Orlovsky is also a member of several other Supervisory Boards and Board of Directors. He has degrees from Tashkent Electro-technical Institute of Communication, Moscow State University of Economy Statistic and Informatics, as well as an MBA from the University of Warwick.

Orlovsky gained experience after working in various structures of ABN and AMRO in Russia, Uzbekistan and the Netherlands. Here he supervised over programs of bank transformation in the IT, corporate and investment sectors. Over the past decade Orlovsky has held top positions, in banking as well consulting firms. His positions ranged from IT deputy director and senior vice president at Alfa Bank, to a partner of IBM Russia/CIS consultancy for financial and insurance companies. He has held his current position of Senior Vice President and CIO at Sberbank since January 2008th.

Bill Fischer

Bill Fischer is Professor of Technology Management at IMD. Professor Fischer has been actively involved in technology-related activities his entire professional career. He was a development engineer in the American steel industry; an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers; and has also consulted on R&D and technology issues in industries such as: pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, textiles and apparel, and packaging.

Additionally, he has served as a consultant to a number of government and international-aid agencies on issues relating to the management of science and technology. Professor Fischer worked with the World Health Organization for more than fifteen years, strengthening research and development institutes in developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

A DBA from George Washington University, Professor Fischer has a written in several fields such as manufacturing, R&D, and technology transfer. He has won several awards for teaching excellence from the American Institute of Decision Sciences, and in case writing from the European Foundation for Management Development.

Mårten Mickos

Marten Mickos is the CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, the leader in open source cloud computing platforms for on-premise use. In his previous position as CEO of MySQL AB, Marten guided the company from a garage start-up to the second largest open source company in the world. After the acquisition by Sun Microsystems of MySQL AB for $1bn, he served as Senior Vice President of Sun's Database Group.

Marten holds a M.Sc. in technical physics from Helsinki University of Technology in his native Finland. A sought-after keynote speaker, Marten's views on technology trends, innovation and leadership are noted and discussed worldwide. He is also a recipient of the Audemars Piguet "Changing Times Award: European Entrepreneur of the Year 2006" and the Nokia Foundation Award.

Birger Steen

Birger Steen is President of Parallels, the world’s leading enabler of cloud computing services. Birger started his professional career in 1992 as an oil trader at Norwegian Oil Trading, where he opened the company’s first office in the former Soviet Union. He joined McKinsey & Company in Norway in 1993. In 1996, he left McKinsey in to join his favorite client Schibsted ASA, a European media group, as Vice President of Business Development. In March 2000 he was named CEO of Scandinavia Online AB.

After selling the company in 2002, Birger joined Microsoft in Norway as General Manager, Microsoft Norway. From October 2004 to June 2009, Birger was General Manager and Vice President, Microsoft Russia. During his tenure, Microsoft’s operations in Russia grew 10-fold in revenues, and Microsoft established representative offices in 23 cities from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. From June 2009 to August 2010, Birger served as Vice President of SMB & Distribution at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, where his team drove Microsoft’s global SMB segment sales, marketing and distribution strategy.

Birger holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Industrial Engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim. He also holds a degree in the Russian Language and received his MBA from INSEAD in France. In 2008 Birger was named the ‟Best Top Manager” in the Russian IT industry by the Kommersant/ Russian Association of Managers.

Kari Hakola

Kari Hakola former senior vice president of Tieto, has worked in the IT business for four decades as a business leader in IT services and management consultant. His clients ranged from retail and telecom, to banking and insurance, with the common characteristic of his experience being; the enabling of business changes through IT and business services.

During his forty years of experience Kari has witnessed the extensive influence which technology has had on business models, practices and competencies. He found that while a sound business plan and realistic content of IT changes are essential to a company, the execution still remains with the people. Through this he gained insight on how to combine a clear business strategy along side with personal growth.

Over the past 7 years Kari has worked along side with today’s `digital cowboys’. During this period they focused on the digitalization of sales and customer service, making a multi-channelled customer experience a reality. Kari asserts that one aspect of his personal growth has been working alongside these digital cowboys, observing their dynamic behaviour. While at the same time learning to adapt his own role as a senior executive to best fit this continuously changing work environment. Though recently retired from Tieto, Kari still uses his expertise through management consulting.

Philipp Rosenthal

Philipp Rosenthal is a marketing and industry sales professional and an enthusiast about the future of a social media inspired workplace. In his current role as ‘Future Office Evangelist’ he is leading Tieto's international solution area for the digital workplace of information and knowledge workers.

Prior to his position at Tieto, Philipp has worked at companies such as United Internet Media AG and Yahoo! where he worked in national and international roles for marketing, sales and change management.

Phillip has his roots in the classic b2b communication and marketing industry. Here Philipp used to act as a partner and consultant at an agency specialized on industry and b2b communications. Combining his time at the agency and the industrial and publishing sectors Philipp has over 10 years of experience in digital media and online business.

Alex Lin

Lin Yong Qing

Alex Lin (Yong Qing), founder and CEO of ChinaValue.Net is a widely regarded international business and information technology authority. Alex is the founding partner of SuperValue International Inc. the premier investment-consulting firm in China. He was a senior executive at Intel Corporation and the Deputy General Manager and VP of Marketing for the “TOP 3” PC maker in China, TsingHua TongFang Computer Ltd.

Alex was the first local MBA (XiaMen University) with Intel China, and is currently the first global EMBA in China from the prestigious TRIUM program. In addition, Alex has completed executive graduate studies at Harvard Business School.

Alex Lin’s views are commonly sought as a top business expert. He has delivered speeches with Jack Welch, Michael Dell, Jorma Ollila, Sumner M. Redstone and other leading executives on China’s number one media outlet, CCTV. Alex has been widely interviewed in the top portals and magazines as the No.1 authority and business founder in new media.