Dr. Totti Könnölä, Managing Director of Insight Foresight Institute, is experienced executive, advisor and speaker in the realm of innovation, entrepreneurship and digitalisation to transform society towards sustainable pathways. He has coordinated many strategic foresight, appraisal, evaluation and decision-making processes together with industry management, research directors, policy-makers and other stakeholders.
He has attained experience in Europe and the Americas in the areas of management, research and policy advice especially in: i) the JRC-IPTS of the European Commission and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), ii) research and technology organisations and universities like IE Business School, Politechnical University of Madrid (UPM), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Helsinki University of Technology, Aalto University, Comillas Pontifical University (ICAI) and ESERP Business School and iii) venture caps, consultancies and industries like eGauss Business Holding I+T, Insight Foresight Institute, Impetu Solutions, Gaia Group and Stora Enso.
In particular, by founding and heading two digital innovation consultancies (previously Impetu Solutions and currently Insight Foresight Institute), Könnölä has gained first-hand experience in startups and activated an extensive network of collaborators around the world. He was also instrumental in scaling up the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and played an active role in the development of EU foresight capabilities and research and innovation policy benchmarking systems of the European Commission (JRC), incl. monitoring the innovation system of Finland.
He is an international advisor and board professional experienced in innovation practice, foresight methodologies and digital platforms for private sector, governments, European Commission and international organisations. For instance, Könnölä is a nominated member of ‘los 100 de Cotec’, a group of experts for Cotec Foundation for Innovation and a Member of the Advisory Boards of CARISMA Innovation for Climate Mitigation, Sustainability College Bruges and FOM Asesoramiento Tecnológico.
Könnölä is associate professor in business and engineering schools (UPM, ESERP, UNIR, etc.) and an accredited public university professor by the Ministry of Education of Spain. He holds Dr.Tech and Lic.Tech in Systems Analysis from Helsinki University of Technology and MSc in Environmental Economics from Helsinki University. He has also attended in Executive Education on Science and Innovation Policy Evaluation in the University of Manchester (MIoIR). He is a co-author of Palgrave Macmillan Book ‘Eco-innovation: When competitiveness and sustainability shake hands’ translated to Spanish and Chinese; an co-author of over hundred scientific publications; an experienced conference speaker and member of scientific committees. Könnölä writes also for daily press and professional magazines contributing to societal discussion on innovation, digitalisation and sustainability.
