V2C Forum 2004
Venture-to-Capital

Ari J. Salonen

Ari’s senior operational experience includes three successful Boston-based start-ups in the enterprise software space.

At CellExchange (software for the US military), Ari initially played the role of the Chief Operating Officer and grew the company from 16 to 200 employees (including a CMM Level 4 offshore development facility in India) and $15 million in revenue and substantial profitability.

At eCredit (credit decisioning and management software), Ari was Senior Vice President of Operations during the time the company grew from 40 to 250 people and was acquired by Internet Capital Group at a $1.5 billion valuation.

In 1993, Ari established the initial US presence of Data Fellows, now F-Secure, a publicly-held virus protection and security solutions company.

Before his operational career, Ari was immersed for over 5 years in technology and growth strategy work at McKinsey & Company where his client list included Compaq, Corning, Ericsson, Nokia, Raytheon, and Textron.

Ari holds a Ph.D. from Helsinki University of Technology. For his post-graduate degree, he also studied finance at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ari’s doctoral dissertation was titled “International Growth of Young Technology-based Finnish Companies” (published in Acta Polytechnica Scandinavica, 1995).

Native of Tampere, Finland, Ari has lived in Boston, Massachusetts, for 12 years. He is a dual Finnish-US citizen.

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