FINLAND - Sitra appoints Timo Kekkonen as executive director of the Innovation Programme

The previous executive director of the programme, Antti Hautamäki, has moved to California for two years on 16 January 2006 to work on a Sitra research project at the University of Berkeley. He will be looking into the management of global knowledge.

At the same time, he will be involved in establishing and developing the Finnish innovation centre in California, which will also serve Sitra’s programmes. Hautamäki’s activity in California will partly serve the aim of Sitra’s Innovation Programme to internationalise the Finnish innovation environment. 'The appointment of Kekkonen provides good support for Sitra’s aim of increasing the exchange of skills between Sitra and public administration. Fixed term assignments in Sitra’s programmes are an excellent way for Sitra to obtain skills of the highest quality, and then, once the assignment has reached a conclusion, to take it forward enhanced by new experience,' says Sitra's president, Esko Aho. Timo Kekkonen has worked at the Ministry of Trade and Industry since 1996. At first, he was responsible for the field of international technology policy, and in early 1999, he became director general of the Ministry’s Technology Department. While he is working at Sitra, Kekkonen will also perform his current duties as chairman of the board at Tekes.

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