Company

Ilkka Kakko

+ 358 50 536 2941

Ilkka is an experienced visionary with a very diverse professional background. He has worked in managerial positions in big industrial companies and in a public innovation intermediary organization. He has also experience as an entrepreneur or a major shareholder and board member in several other business fields like consultancy, financial services, leisure and creative industries and MLM marketing. Ilkka has served as a board member in several publicly quoted companies in Finland.

Ilkka is well known in his ability to find emergent business areas and get them going. He has been a pioneering in many businesses, he established the first financial portfolio management business outside Helsinki, founded with his partners the first option and future exchange – Finnish Option Exchange, created the first Finnish ice-hockey franchise working as limited company and created the first coworking space in Scandinavia. At the moment he is recognised as the leading expert and pioneer in the field of serendipity management.

Ilkka has wide and diverse global networks and he is well connected to the top experts relevant to Karostech’s business development. Ilkka has lived and worked during his professional career also in Sweden, Scotland and Thailand. His country residence is on the Lake Viinijärvi in Eastern Finland and he also lives in Lahti. Ilkka is fluent in Finnish, English and Swedish.

Erik Raita

+358 40 593 8142

Having a strong hands-on experience with starting up and developing technology based business, Erik is a seasoned consultant in the fields of ICT and innovation management. He also has an experience of acting in key expert’s role in large EU funded cross-border projects. Thanks to his long term connections in Russia he is strongly networked with the main Russian actors in the fields of ICT, photonics, nanotechnologies, venture capital and start-up scene, innovation development, higher education and science.

Erik holds Ph.D. in physics from 1997 and before starting his entrepreneurial career in 2002 he has been working as a researcher of the Academy of Finland. His main scientific interest area was photonics and laser optics. That was also the field of business for his first start-up company founded as university spin-off in 2002. Erik is fluent in Finnish, Russian and English.

Kirsi Mononen

+358 45 152 2175

Kirsi is a seasoned expert in science and project management with 20 years background in education, research, development and innovation in universities, research institutes and in private sector. She holds Ph.D. in chemistry and she is a qualified vocational teacher and a qualified member of board, too. Her main areas of expertise are materials chemistry, wood chemistry, bio economy as well as training and RDI funding.

In her field of expertise, Kirsi is a member of expert community extending from SME’s to research organisations and academic institutes. During her career, she has helped projects, businesses and individuals to grow. Kirsi lives in Eastern Finland. She is fluent in Finnish, English and German.