Kari Mikkelä, M.Sc (Tech), Executive Producer, Urban Mill Innovation Platform; Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Aalto University

Kari Mikkelä has over 30 years of academic, corporate, and NGO experience in learning, innovation, and business services. During his career, he has worked in and for several organizations in a variety of capacities specialized in innovation orchestration, user-driven RDI, and digitally-enabled services co-creation. He has overseen well over 200 successful initiatives. Among other things, he has orchestrated 15 years digital learning services and solutions development in the European University-Enterprise collaboration context. At the moment Kari acts as an Executive Producer of the Urban Mill – an Urban Innovation Co-working and Co-creation Platform in Espoo Innovation Garden.

Kari is co-founder of Urban Mill, which is a privately run public-private-people co-working and co-creation platform for urban innovations co-initiated by the City of Espoo and Aalto University and situated at Aalto University campus. Urban Mill uses a 6-step innovation accelerator process that leads the entrepreneurs from pitching stories, through events, team building, and fast prototyping to a collaborative journey during which sustainable business models and ecosystems are built. Urban Mill’s approach is demonstrated by its over 150 000 physical and virtual engagements, 3500 events, 1000 pioneers, 100 prototypes, and 50 startup teams since 2013. It is a powerful example of an open innovation platform that uses a thematic approach, agile orchestration, and co-creation methods to advance societal transformation.

Kari received his M.Sc. Degree from Tampere University of Technology (TUT - Laboratory of Production Systems and Laboratory of Industrial Economics) and studies as a candidate for his Ph.D. at Aalto University (DIEM - Department of Industrial Engineering and Management). The theme of his Ph.D. work is “Orchestration of Digitally enabled Service Business Development” in the context of technology-supported learning and working ecosystems. He has worked e.g. at TUT, Finnish Engineers Association (TEK ry), and Helsinki University of Technology before he joined Järvelin Design Oy in 1998 where he presently works as an Executive Producer and an Innovation Architect in charge of the Urban Mill businesses.

Kari has worked over 20 years as an in-sourced external advisor, coach, and executive producer providing expertise and facilitation in areas of learning technologies, innovation orchestration, digitally enabled service business creation, RDI ecosystems, living lab processes, co-creation platforms, and societal transformation and impact acceleration for several private and public organizations including Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki School of Economics, University of Helsinki, Aalto University, Aalto University Properties Ltd., Culminatum Ltd – the Centre of Expertise for Digital Learning Services, Sitra – The Finnish Innovation Fund, Prime Minister’s Office of Finland and the European Commission.