Canatu hires Juha Kokkonen as new CEO from Microsoft
Canatu, the leading manufacturer of flexible and 3D formable transparent conductive films and touch sensors, announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed Juha Kokkonen as Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Juha previously held the position of General Manager of Windows Phones at Microsoft.
Canatu’s Board of Directors are confident Juha’s incumbency will be particularly fruitful. Juha is considered particularly strong due to his deep understanding of mobile technologies deriving from his long history with Nokia, Nokia Networks and Microsoft. Juha’s leadership roles with Nokia, Nokia Networks and Microsoft have provided him with regular exposure and long established ties to key industry players worldwide. Juha has an impressive track record in business and innovation leadership, extensive experience in go-to market strategy formulation and practical knowhow in bringing new innovations to the market. He is seen as a result driven, energetic leader with wide international experience by his peers.
At Microsoft, Juha held key product and business leadership roles successfully driving new Nokia and Microsoft product innovations such as the first Meego product N9, the design award winning first Lumia ever Lumia 800, the industry leading imaging product Lumia 1020 and the first windows Phablet Lumia 1520. Juha also founded and steered the Lumia and Microsoft Phones innovation lab.
The smartphone and tablet markets have seen minimal innovation in the last few years with even the market leaders losing market share. Carbon Nanobud based films and touch sensors enable leading consumer electronic innovators to disrupt with new form factors and user experiences.
“Canatu’s vision of gaining the market leader position in the bendable and stretchable 3D formable touch film markets by 2020 is strengthened by this new appointment. Juha’s strong leadership, innovation focused, in-depth understanding of the consumer electronics and smartphone industries together with Canatu’s first-class enabler material take us one step closer to this vision”
Canatu Chairman of the Board, Sami Lampinen
Juha steps in at an exciting time as Canatu is expanding at rapid speed due to solid market demand as well as a recent 22 million euro funding aimed for production capacity expansion and R&D development. Canatu is currently in mass production supplying CNT films and touch sensors for a number of significant global brands in the consumer electronics and automotive industry. The automotive industry in particular is going through tremendous change. Canatu’s products bring value to car manufacturers by providing unprecedented design freedom and possibilities that go beyond the outdated, traditional interiors seen today. The company’s 3D formable material is envisioned to revolutionize the industry as huge investments in bigger updatable control panels, SW driven display and touch controlled features, electric and self-driving cars are increasingly being made.
“I am super excited and honored to once again have the opportunity to be part of a major industry and consumer experience shift. I believe Canatu’s innovative CNT based products can be the key catalysts in driving new and more intuitive form factors and user experiences. Canatu has started significant investments to be the market leader in the innovative touch film sector. I believe the leading product companies will introduce new major form factor and user paradigm innovations enabling new pocketable and wearable computers in the coming years. I foresee them being foldable, bendable and in some cases even stretchable. What’s more, I couldn’t be more excited about collaborating with the automotive industry to enable new designs as well as natural and upgradable experiences for consumers”
CEO of Canatu, Juha Kokkonen
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About Canatu
Canatu is a carbon nanomaterial developer creating the most advanced carbon nanotubes for industry-transforming products. The Canatu carbon nanotube (CNT) technology has been created with a unique process that ensures the required versatility and reliability for highly engineered solutions. Canatu partners with forerunner companies, together transforming products for better tomorrows with nano carbon. The company’s focus is in the automotive and semiconductor industries with the portfolio’s core spanning from ADAS heaters to 3D touch sensors and to EUV membranes. The experts at Canatu think big and create impacts on the tiniest scale – nano solutions for massive impact. Canatu’s headquarters are in Finland with sales offices also in the US, Japan and Taiwan.