Management team

Leading the Senseg experience

Moaffak Ahmed
Chairman of the Board
Moaffak Ahmed is the first investor in Senseg. He is a serial entrepreneur and hands-on early stage investor with over 20 years of marketing and business development experience in Europe, North America, and Asia. As co-founder of the financial software firm, Trema, Mr. Ahmed was part of the team that built the firm up to annual revenues of 50 million USD with a client portfolio that included Citibank, European Central Bank, GE Capital, etc. He made a successful exit from Trema in 2004 and started investing in early stage technology startups.

Jussi Harvela
CEO
Mr. Harvela has over 20 years of management experience in the high technology industry. As the co-founder and general partner of Veturi Venture Accelerator Oy, he led the development of a new breed of venture incubator. From 1996-1999, he held various executive positions including CEO at the California-based Solid Corporation (now part of IBM). Mr. Harvela has been a key senior advisor to numerous start-up and growth companies and holds an advisory board position with several national technology commercialization programs including TEKES TULI and The Finnish Venture Cup. Mr. Harvela received his M.Sc. in software engineering, international marketing, and business strategy from the Helsinki University of Technology.

Ville Mäkinen, PhD
Founder and CTO
Dr. Ville Mäkinen founded Senseg in June 2006. Having created Senseg’s initial customer base in the field of medical technology, Mr. Mäkinen went on to develop the innovations that underlie Senseg’s solution along with the growing the company. Mr. Mäkinen led the team that raised Senseg’s initial funding from Ambient Sound Investments, Avera – the Finnish National Seed Fund, and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovations. Mr. Mäkinen carried out his doctoral studies in Helsinki University of Technology in the area of signal processing, medical technology, and psychology.

Jukka Linjama, PhD
Chief Technologist
Dr. Jukka Linjama has 15 years of technology development experience, followed by 8 years at Nokia as a haptics specialist and concept designer. He has contributed to a variety of scientific publications ranging from acoustics to human-computer interaction and has several patents to his credit. Responsible for the human-centric development of Senseg’s technology, Mr. Linjama is keen on targeting the R&D activities so that the offering as a whole will surpass user expectations.

Sami Hyyryläinen
EVP, Worldwide Sales
Mr. Hyyryläinen holds an M.Sc. from the University of Oulu in Electrical Engineering. He worked at Nokia Mobile Phones from 1997 to 2000. Between 2000 and 2007 Mr. Hyyrylainen held various positions at Hantro Products Oy, rising to Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. When On2 Technologies Inc. (NYSE/AMEX: ONT) acquired Hantro at the end of 2007, Mr. Hyyryläinen continued as SVP Worldwide Sales at the combined company. In 2009, Mr. Hyyryläinen joined Senseg to handle Business Development and Sales worldwide. He has lived in Japan/Tokyo for 10 years, is now based in Taiwan/Taipei, and has developed a wealth of experience and an extensive contact network within the high tech industry in the APAC, NA, and EMEA regions.

Harri Kapanen
Vice President, Product Creation
Mr. Kapanen has 14 years of R&D experience in high technology industry. From 1998 to 2004 he worked on telecommunications network chips at Tellabs. In 2004 Mr. Kapanen transitioned to 3D graphics hardware development, and held various technical and management positions as the business group underwent three sequential acquisitions, ending up at Qualcomm in 2009. In 2010, he joined Senseg to lead R&D activities. Mr. Kapanen received his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology.

Pekka Nikander, PhD
Chief Software Architect
Dr. Pekka Nikander has over 25 years of experience in software development and R&D leadership. In 1988, he founded Nixu, today the largest security consultancy company in Finland, with over 100 employees. From 1999 until 2011, he led the development of Ericsson Research NomadicLab that has become an industry-leading lab focused on the mobile Internet with 50 employees. Dr. Nikander has a Ph.D. with honors from Helsinki University of Technology (now part of Aalto University), is the author or co-author of over 70 peer reviewed scientific publications, and is a co-inventor on over 20 patents.

David Rice
Vice President, Marketing
Mr. Rice brings over 20 years of high tech marketing, product management and executive leadership experience to his role at Senseg, including roles as VP Marketing, GM and CEO for early stage ventures and public companies. With a passion for transforming markets with technology, he has been a key contributor to companies as they have grown from technology concepts to market leaders and profitable public enterprises in markets ranging from software application development components and data management products to social media and e-commerce solutions. Mr. Rice earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, with honors, and his MBA from the University of Oregon.