New Chairman of the TUT Foundation’s Board Tero Ojanperä calls for more creativity

Ojanperä has a strong and versatile 20+ year long experience in mobile industry, especially in stimulating innovations, building new businesses and in R&D activities. He has occupied various executive positions at Nokia, including Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, Executive Vice President, and Head of Nokia Research Center. Ojanperä has served on the Group Executive Board of Nokia for seven years.

Ojanperä is currently Managing Partner of the Vision+ investment fund. Vision+ invests especially in applications, games, media brands and services in all digital platforms and helps developers create partnerships and commercialize their products.

Ojanperä graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Oulu and has obtained a PhD from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He is a member of the Forum of Young Global Leaders. In 2009, he was ranked number seven on the Fast Company’s list of the 100 Most Creative People In Business.

Strong fundamental research is the stepping-stone to innovation

“I’ve been working at the interface between academia and industry almost my entire career. Higher education and research have had a profound effect on Finland’s competitiveness. I want to work together with the rest of the Board to advance these matters“, says Ojanperä.

“Both fundamental research and the commercialization of research results, especially through the promotion of entrepreneurship, are important and call for significant investments. Tampere has a strong local tradition of both fields, but they must be further strengthened by allocating resources appropriately to ensure that there is room for innovation and creativity.”

Ojanperä says that amid the growing competition for talented students, teachers and researchers as well as research funding it is important that the University invests strongly into selected leading-edge fields.

“Openness and active dialogue among employees, students and other stakeholders are the key elements of managing and renewing the University. In addition, the board members’ extensive expertise and stakeholder relationships must be fully exploited.”

Ojanperä and Senior Consultant Leena Eskola joined the Board of the TUT Foundation at the turn of the year. Ojanperä was appointed to chair the Board after Director General Erkki KM Leppävuori’s term as Chairman ended on 31 December 2011. Professor Sirpa Jalkanen was appointed as the Vice Chair.

The TUT Foundation that operates as Tampere University of Technology conducts research in the fields of technology and architecture and provides higher education based on this research. A total of 10,400 students are currently studying at the University. Around 8,800 of them are pursuing undergraduate studies and 1,600 postgraduate studies. The University employs 2,000 people. Eighty per cent of employees are classified as research and teaching staff or support staff. The University started operating in the form of a foundation in the beginning of 2010.

Further information:
President Markku Kivikoski, tel. +358 40 849 0094, markku.kivikoski@tut.fi