V2C Forum 2004
Venture-to-Capital

Kari Kankaala

Kari Kankaala, 44, managing director, joined Professia in August 2002. Prior to that he was a director responsible for technology transfer at the venture capital arm of Sitra, the Finnish National Fund for R&D, where his task was to enhance the capitalization of the Finnish knowledge base, especially technology transfer mechanisms at and from Finnish universities and research institutions including licensing and investments in start-ups. Earlier in his career, Kari has been engaged in technology transfer activities both at universities and in the private sector in Finland and in the US. Kari is a past and present board member at some 15 venture capital backed firms and has acted as an expert in several innovation related working groups, committees and the like including the Innovation Program Committee in EU FP5. He is a dislocated physicists by training and holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics and a licentiate degree in microelectronics.

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