SZABOLCS SZAKÁCSITS
President, CTO, Board Member
Szabolcs oversees the company’s overall strategy and technical path. He is a seasoned entrepreneur. Szabolcs
founded his first software company specialized in Linux and Internet in 1996 then moved on to developing computer games for Erno Rubik. Szabolcs founded Tuxera in 2008, based on the open-source project he had worked on since 2002. Prior to Tuxera he worked for F-Secure and Ericsson. He holds a degree in Computer Science from University of Szeged, Hungary.
TUUKKA AHONIEMI
CEO
Tuukka joined Tuxera in September 2019, bringing to the company strategic hands-on leadership in global international product and service business. Before Tuxera, he worked as an SVP of strategy at Qt Group with a long background within the embedded software industry. Tuukka holds a D.Sc. in Computer Science from Tampere University of Technology.
JONAS JUSLIN
Chief Operating Officer
Jonas joined the company in 2019. Before Tuxera he worked several years in investment banking at Evli Bank, focusing on M&A and equity capital market transactions. In addition, he has also worked with various business development and strategy questions as a management consultant at EY. He holds a M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration from Hanken School of Economics.
KERRI McCONNELL
GM, Tuxera US Inc; Chief Revenue Officer
Kerri is in charge of Americas operations for Tuxera, and is responsible for worldwide corporate development projects. She brings to Tuxera over a decade of knowledge in embedded systems technologies and multi-industry storage needs, plus a deep understanding of customer-centric product development. Prior to joining Tuxera in 2019, she spent over a decade as VP of Sales and Marketing at Datalight, and 15 years at Adobe Systems.
ANTTI ALILA
VP, Head of Enterprise Business Unit
Antti joined the company in late 2021 to lead the Tuxera Enterprise Business Unit and support the needs of the world’s rapidly expanding enterprise cloud storage market. Before Tuxera, he worked for 15 years in Microsoft as Azure Business Group Lead. In that role, he executed the market development of Microsoft Azure business in Finland, from its early beginnings all the way to its position as a leading cloud platform. Antti has also worked with various customers as Lead Technical Architect, helping large enterprises in their digitalization journey.
MARKO FINNIG
VP, Head of Embedded Business Unit
Marko joined Tuxera in early 2023, bringing to the company a decade of experience in building and scaling world-class product and service businesses. He has an extensive background in the embedded software industry, and has held key product and service leadership positions at Vaisala, Qt Group, and F-Secure. Marko holds a B.Sc. in Engineering from Oulu University of Applied Sciences.
HENRY HILTUNEN
VP, People and Culture
Henry has a Software engineering degree and a long history in the field of ICT. He is an accomplished leader, with specialist leadership development skills and training, and is certified in coaching. Henry joined Tuxera in Autumn 2018, before which he worked in various ICT consulting companies as a software developer and in human leadership roles.
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
HEIKKI MÄKIJÄRVI
Chairman of the Board
Heikki Mäkijärvi is a seasoned technology investor with a strong corporate background. He has demonstrated a successful track record in activities around global technology start-ups including investing, guiding, and facilitating exits.
Heikki has contributed significantly to prominent rate venture capital operations at Cisco Investment, T-Venture at Deutsche Telekom, Airbus Ventures, and Telia Ventures. He possesses extensive corporate expertise in engineering, strategic partnering, and business development as demonstrated in his leadership roles at Nokia, Cisco, Openway, and Deutsche Telekom. Heikki has served as a Board Member for several publicly listed technology companies in Finland: Digia, Comptel, DNA, and Teleste (since 2018). Additionally, Heikki has served on several start-up company boards in Europe, Israel, and USA. A native of Finland, Heikki earned a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in Helsinki University of Technology (a.k.a. Aalto University).
Tuula Rytilä
Board Member
Rytilä is an accomplished senior executive with a record of success and vision for driving business growth and impacting change at scale in large global technology companies. Tuula’s leadership value extends to Board of Director roles, consulting on tech innovation, expansion, management change, and transformation. In 2019, Tuula became a member of Bang & Olufsen’s Board and has served as their Technology Committee Chair since summer 2022. In April 2023, she assumed a Board of Director role at the Breville Group Ltd. There, Tuula has focused on geographic and product portfolio expansion and enhancing their global digital ecosystem capabilities. In August 2023, Tuula assumed her first Board Director role in a Finnish publicly traded company Kempower Oyj – a growth company providing electric vehicle charging solutions globally. She is a member of their Renumeration and Nomination Committee. Tuula has also a board role with the Finnish startup eBrands to help scale their business and organization.
In her corporate capacity, Tuula was most recently Vice President at Microsoft (2014-2023), where in her last role she built and managed their e-commerce business and the supporting tech platforms. Tuula’s tech career started in 1999 at Nokia (1999-2014), her last position being their global CMO.
A native of Finland, Tuula earned a M.Sc. in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and studied abroad in Canada and Russia.