JORMA ROUTTI

Jorma Routti is Professor at the Helsinki University of Technology and the Executive Chairman of Creative Industries Management Ltd, the first European venture capital fund for creative industries launched early 2001 with private and public investors from Finland and the EIF from Luxembourg. During 1995-2000, he was in charge of Europe's EUR 15 billion research budgets as Director General of Research DG of the European Commission. Previously, he served as the President of Sitra, the Finnish National Fund for R&D and VC industry development, for almost 10 years. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

RICHARD HARRISON

Richard Harrison is Professor and Head of Management Studies and Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Previously, he has taught strategy, entrepreneurship, and management development in the UK and Argentina. His core research interests include entrepreneurial finance, particularly venture capital and informal venture capital, and technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship. He is co-founding editor of Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, and is a Director of AURIS Ltd, the University of Aberdeen's commercialisation company.

RUDY AERNOUDT

The Wall Street Journal by Charles Fleming, April 10, 2000: "From the bureaucratic corridors of the European Commission, Rudy Aernoudt acts as ground control for Europe's small but growing band of investors known as business angels. Why, you might ask, would professional risk-takers need a guiding hand from the supranational body? … 'He's not part of the blah-blah party that you might imagine in Brussels,' explains Eric Gaillat, the head of a French online service called Businessangels.com, which matches investors with entrepreneurs. 'He has helped to promote a pro-business idea, instead of imposing dumb regulation.' As the Commission's specialist in entrepreneurial finance… Mr. Aernoudt helps to set up business-angel networks across Europe. The aim of the effort is to help wealthy private investors meet fledgling entrepreneurs looking for relatively small amounts of seed money."

MARJUKKA ALHAVA

Marjukka Alhava is Co-Founder, Partner, and Managing Director of Ledi Oy, a Tampere Technology Centre Hermia based private group specialised in supporting the development of early-stage technology companies. She is a co-creator of the Tampere Seed Finance Consortium and was the Founding Chairman of Finnish Business Angel Association. She holds a University of Tampere masters degree in political science.

WILLIAM CARDWELL

William Cardwell is Partner of Eqvitec Partners. His track record includes the Data Fellows IPO, Solid Information's private placement, the trade sale of Iobox to Terra Mobile, and the second round financing for Digia. His career started with six years in the risk management industry at MacKeen & Bailey Actuaries and at AIG. In Finland, he was Director of the Finance Institute of the Helsinki Centre for Business Research (LTT-Research) from 1996-98, and Visiting Professor in the HSE International MBA Program from 1992-99. He holds a B.Sc. from Davidson College, an International MBA from the HSE, and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

VILLE JUMPPANEN

Ville Jumppanen is Managing Director at OKO Venture Capital Ltd. His main areas of responsibility include investor and partner relations as well as administrative matters pertaining to the funds managed by OKO Venture Capital. His main areas of expertise are in banking, both domestic and international. During his 13 years at OKO Bank, Mr. Jumppanen has held various positions, including three years as the chief representative at the bank's Tallinn representative office and manager in the corporate banking division. He holds an M.Sc. (Agr.) degree from the University of Helsinki, an M.Sc. (Econ.) degree from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration as well as an eMBA.

GUUS KEDER

Guus Keder joined Alta Berkeley Venture Partners in 1997, prior to which he was a partner in a European M&A firm advising a variety of start-up companies on fund raising and strategic issues. Before that he held management positions with Hagemeyer and Bristol-Myers. Guus Keder holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA in Electrical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology. His focus is on information technology related investments and he is responsible for Alta Berkeley's investments in Categoric, TV Files, Sawcom. Guus Keder previously also served on the Board of Iobox.

OSMO KOSKISTO

Osmo Koskisto is Vice President of Alma Media Corporation, in charge of Intellectual Property Rights and Venture Capital. Previously he was Chief Executive Officer of an investment company specialised to the telecom and public utilities companies. During 1991-1999 he served National Technology Agency of Finland, TEKES, in numerous duties funding R&D of technology companies, research centres and universities. He holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, Maryland.

PEKKA JUSSILA

Pekka Jussila is Director of Hermia Business Development Ltd and the leader of the e-Accelerator development program for under the eTampere initiative. He has been an entrepreneur for 10 years and actively participated in the development of technology based start-ups in the Tampere Region. He has helped 150 start-up companies to get off the ground and has evaluated over 1500 business ideas in the process. He also actively participates in University-Industry liaison work at the Tampere University of Technology. He has also organized lectures and supervised M.Sc. thesis works in Marketing.

KARI KANKAALA

Kari Kankaala, 41, - director (technology transfer) joined Sitra in 1998 to enhance the capitalization of the Finnish knowledge base, especially technology transfer mechanisms at and from Finnish universities and research institutions. Prior to joining Sitra, he was engaged in technology transfer activities both at universities and in the private sector in Finland and in the US. At Sitra, a public venture capital fund, Kari is occupied with various aspects of research and technology commercialization, including licensing and investments in start-up companies as well as policy related work. Kari is a dislocated physicist and holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics and a licentiate degree in microelectronics.

ARTO NAUKKARINEN

Arto Naukkarinen is Managing Director of Privanet Ventures Ltd. Previously, he was in charge of OKO-Venture Capital at OKOBANK Group, where he also served as Deputy Managing Director of OP-Finance Plc. His board memberships include Hudson's Bay and Annings Ltd (London), Computec Ltd., Profec Technologies Ltd., SSH Communications Security Ltd., and Aldata Solution Plc. He has served in investment advisory boards of several VC funds, as Chairman of the FVCA, and as Chairman of the European cooperative banks' Unico Banking Group's VC Committee.

EERO SILVENNOINEN

Dr. Eero Silvennoinen is the Director of Information Technology at Tekes, the National Technology Agency of Finland. Previously, he has served Tekes as the Executive Director of Finland Technology Center, in Boston, and as Research Manager and Program Manager of new technology based businesses, since 1988. Before Tekes, he served the Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT) as Research Scientist and Nokia, and -- earlier yet -- a small technology based company, as Software Engineer.

Panel moderated by:

Lea Vakkari, Project Manager, Hermia Business Development, at Tampere Technology Centre, is the leader and main co-ordinator of e-Forum project, which is a large European co-operational pilot project under IST. She has been involved in regional development since 1996 and prior to that responsible chief dealer in money market operations dealing with both short and long term interest papers.