Digital Frontline Training Programme

Jari Tietäväinen

As a seasoned enterprise architect with long and versatile experience my passion is to help business and IT work together and achieve even the most challenging goals. I already have 30+ years of IT experience, including 20 years’ experience of Enterprise Architecture. Financial Services is my strongest industry but over the years I have worked with organizations in vast majority of other industries as well.

I also work as consultant as well as a trainer. Therefore, as a trainer, I always want to share my wide hands-on experience and knowledge and focus on essential. I often hear the words “I have never heard anyone explain Enterprise Architecture as clearly as you just did” which is something that really motivates me.

Being able to see far enough and understand the big picture are key requirements for successful Enterprise Architecture. This is something I like to do in my leisure time also. Astronomy is one of my favorite hobbies. Wondering the miracles of the Universe with my two astronomical telescopes helps me charging my batteries for new challenges.

Kazimir Kolesnik

I believe that the success of many businesses today depends upon highly competent people who, on top of their area of expertise, are also skillful communicators. The ability to be convincing, credible, positive, and yet natural on the stage – whether for business or performance –  is a crucial factor for an individual and even for a company to succeed.

I have been providing performance and influencing training for numerous C-level executives in Finland over the past 12 years. This business experience together with my 35 year-career as a performance artist, forms a combination which, I believe, is unique in the field of business communication training.

Matti Vesala

I work as a Business Executive overseeing services that support customers in their digital business development. This is also my main focus in the Business Technology Academy.

My greatest passion is emotional and innovative purpose driven leadership that aims at making people feel happy, creative and excited – especially in business development. I love to step up and lead value networks that reach beyond known organizational structures to create value yet unseen! I’m passionate about “beta”, constantly encouraging people to discover new business potential by sharing, exploring and collaborating in the earliest stage.

I have a track record of over 15 years in leading business development and delivery of global IT services. Over the years, I’ve witnessed the evolution of the core IT and the revolution of digitalization especially in the telecom, media and manufacturing industries. I’m passionate to find out how future digitalization, AI and robotics will be managed and how we transform our leadership to maximize the benefits of emerging business technology.

I’m also passionate about cooking, and the same mindset can easily be applied to IT development as well: I imagine myself exploring new culinary adventures for customers by trusting simple high-quality ingredients but keeping a curious mindset constantly testing how to discover new ways to prepare them.

Pavel Haimi

I work as Head of Development of Service Management and Management of Technology Backbone concepts and services in Sofigate. I have more than 15 years of experience in managing IT as well as developing key organizational capabilities in various companies across industries in Northern Europe. Currently, I am authoring a book around Service Integration. This is a collaborative journey bringing together companies across sectors in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the UK.

My passion is to help others to become successful and reach their goals. The most rewarding thing about coaching for me is an opportunity to take part in organizational or personal development journeys. Further, I enjoy meeting new people and learning from others as well.

In my free time I like to run or play golf. The dearest hobby I tried is paragliding. It is like jumping from a parachute, but one can stay much longer in the air.

Elena Van Leemput

I like my work best when I can motivate and help other people. I constantly strive for excellence in everything I do and I’m open to different ideas that challenge my views.  I believe in constant change which drives my innovative mindset. My background is both in technology and business with more than 15 years’ experience ranging from demand, development to service management.  I enjoy taking initiative and carry out new ventures.

I try to keep things simple and bring my skills when I coach and facilitate to inspire people and help them innovate. I’m passionate about all forms of facilitation and coaching be it face-to-face or virtual facilitation. I also enjoy creating different e-learning training, holding innovation workshops and design thinking hackathons.

I also find it very important to nurture my creative side along the way (visual arts: photography, sketching, videography and all areas of design) through both my work and hobbies – which I’m happy to say I get to do often enough.  

Ari Nuutinen

My mission is to help customers to develop and improve their business with IT. I have a strongly business-oriented way of thinking combined with solid technical background. I’m inspired by challenges and finding creative, new ways of getting things done. Business technology, strategy and transformation are my areas of expertise. I have worked with more than 50 companies ranging from small growth companies to large corporations in various industries.

Coaching means continuous learning and professional development for myself me as well. I like to share my experiences and learn from others. I am motivated in simplifying complex issues, and I like to use visualization as a tool for communication.

In my free time I like to try out everything new and exciting. One of my long-time hobbies is martial arts. For me, it is a versatile combination of real-life agility, brain-teasing problem solving, overall physical fitness etc. Life-long learning at its best.

Liisa Korkiakoski

I’m a computer scientist who has been working in different areas of business & IT for more than 20 years. Starting as a Programmer and then continuing to work in several different areas and in different roles within IT led me to be e.g. eCommerce-, eProcurement-, Integration specialist, and Project/Program Manager. Everything I did was around Digitalization.

Past five-plus years I’ve been working with the subjects of learning, training & coaching at Sofigate Academy. My work varies from 2 hours of interactive facilitation events to the creation of 2 years-long change programs and everything from between. The key in everything is to empower people to learn, to understand, and to make the change We at the Academy have a strong people-centric mindset. My job here is to create memorable learning experiences with an impact – and do it in a fun, inspirational way.

My latest passion is in Positive Psychology – how can we have a happy, flourishing life. As a Positive Psychology Practitioner, I’m bringing new coaching themes to our trainings including areas such as self-determination theory in practice, supporting our inner motivation, growing mindset, self-determined organisations and teams & why and how to use your strengths.

Today I still have the strong computer scientist in me, but nowadays I’ll describe myself as a digitalization, change and training leader with a twist of a happiness scientist.