9.9.2010

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY SPEAKS AT WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM'S MEETING

The respected Swiss economic organisation, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has invited Technology Academy Finland (TAF) to be a cooperation partner at its Summer Davos meeting. The Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010 of the non-profit World Economic Forum will be held in Tianjin, China on 13–15 September. As many as 1,800 leading experts from around the world are expected to attend the meeting.

“This is a great honour for Technology Academy Finland. The invitation from WEF is well-founded because we are a neutral partner, we award the Millennium Technology Prize and Finland has a reputation as being a high-tech country. Furthermore, it is easy to cooperate with the Finns because we do what we promise,” says Ainomaija Haarla, President and CEO of Technology Academy Finland.

Summer Davos is an important gathering for businesses, the academic world and government organisations. The international meeting, which focuses on entrepreneurship, was held for the first time in 2007. The theme of this year’s meeting is Driving Growth through Sustainability.

“The operations of Technology Academy Finland are also based on tripartite cooperation between the business world, academia and the government, which is one reason why we were invited to the meeting.”

Technology Academy Finland will be represented at the meeting in several ways. Professor Michael Grätzel, the main winner of the 2010 Millennium Technology Prize awarded by TAF, will speak on two days about global energy solutions, especially solar energy. Ainomaija Haarla will participate in a workshop entitled The Innovation Ecosystem, which will seek real-time solutions with the aid of a top-level group of experts to problems faced by growth companies. She has also been invited to act as a mentor in a debate on the challenges concerning the leadership of global growth companies.

“One of the working methods at the Summer Davos meeting is that the WEF’s partner companies can invite experts to discuss a particular theme in the role of mentor. I was invited as a mentor by among others a major Indian global growth company in the ITC sector, which wants to swap ideas on the ‘employees first, customer second’ (EFCS) model,” says Haarla.

For further information, please contact:

Ainomaija Haarla, President and CEO, Technology Academy Finland
Tel. +358 40 716 0703, ainomaija.haarla (at) technologyacademy.fi

www.technologyacademy.fi

http://www.weforum.org/en/events/AnnualMeetingoftheNewChampions2010/index.htm