Otso Kivekäs
Director, software development at Sitedrive- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Roosa Melkko
Otso is a true leader and clearly the best supervisor I have ever had. He is an empathic leader who is a great judge of character, open to new ideas, comfortable with hypothesis-driven thinking and able to incorporate diverse opinions into his ways of thinking. In his communication, Otso is always conscious of taking the listener into account and inspires people with the idea of a shared mission. Otso is also extremely patient, and never sets himself above anyone else. At Sitedrive, I saw how Otso was able to rally a startup with a tumultuous past, messy systems and multiple separate products by identifying and hiring key roles such as architecture and design leads, and setting the company on a roadmap toward a newly clarified product vision. I was genuinely inspired by his vision of how to build up the organization to reach our company mission, and the trust he always put on all my inputs, even when I was myself expressing doubts. Finally, Otso has tremendous technical knowledge, especially on how to create the technical conditions for growth and managing the risks of scaling up. He was a key contributor in all discussions about our technology selections and how to raise the bar in technical excellence and velocity without resorting to unrealistic or insensitive "blow-it-all-up" solutions. I would be glad to work with Otso again in any capacity, and I recommend him to any suitable positions.
Joni Karppinen
I worked with Otso for about 4 months in a customer project in late 2010, him being PM and scrum master, and myself a developer. Here's why I liked collaborating with him: * Otso is utterly intelligent, good with people, and experienced in organising effective meetings and agile planning sessions, which helped us get moving in the right direction rapidly. * I liked his touch as project manager: guiding things just enough to keep everything on track, while carefully avoiding stifling the team's self-direction or getting in the way of our flow. Despite being busy with other projects, he was at all times acutely aware of both big picture and relevant details, sharing the team's collective technical understanding that emerged during the autumn. * Otso has a pragmatic, flexible mindset of getting things done, smartly. He isn't religious about methodologies or tools, but not too "laizzes-faire" either. In summary, Otso has a great attitude and excellent grasp of how to make a project succeed. He's fun to work with too.
Roosa Melkko
Otso is a true leader and clearly the best supervisor I have ever had. He is an empathic leader who is a great judge of character, open to new ideas, comfortable with hypothesis-driven thinking and able to incorporate diverse opinions into his ways of thinking. In his communication, Otso is always conscious of taking the listener into account and inspires people with the idea of a shared mission. Otso is also extremely patient, and never sets himself above anyone else. At Sitedrive, I saw how Otso was able to rally a startup with a tumultuous past, messy systems and multiple separate products by identifying and hiring key roles such as architecture and design leads, and setting the company on a roadmap toward a newly clarified product vision. I was genuinely inspired by his vision of how to build up the organization to reach our company mission, and the trust he always put on all my inputs, even when I was myself expressing doubts. Finally, Otso has tremendous technical knowledge, especially on how to create the technical conditions for growth and managing the risks of scaling up. He was a key contributor in all discussions about our technology selections and how to raise the bar in technical excellence and velocity without resorting to unrealistic or insensitive "blow-it-all-up" solutions. I would be glad to work with Otso again in any capacity, and I recommend him to any suitable positions.
Joni Karppinen
I worked with Otso for about 4 months in a customer project in late 2010, him being PM and scrum master, and myself a developer. Here's why I liked collaborating with him: * Otso is utterly intelligent, good with people, and experienced in organising effective meetings and agile planning sessions, which helped us get moving in the right direction rapidly. * I liked his touch as project manager: guiding things just enough to keep everything on track, while carefully avoiding stifling the team's self-direction or getting in the way of our flow. Despite being busy with other projects, he was at all times acutely aware of both big picture and relevant details, sharing the team's collective technical understanding that emerged during the autumn. * Otso has a pragmatic, flexible mindset of getting things done, smartly. He isn't religious about methodologies or tools, but not too "laizzes-faire" either. In summary, Otso has a great attitude and excellent grasp of how to make a project succeed. He's fun to work with too.
Roosa Melkko
Otso is a true leader and clearly the best supervisor I have ever had. He is an empathic leader who is a great judge of character, open to new ideas, comfortable with hypothesis-driven thinking and able to incorporate diverse opinions into his ways of thinking. In his communication, Otso is always conscious of taking the listener into account and inspires people with the idea of a shared mission. Otso is also extremely patient, and never sets himself above anyone else. At Sitedrive, I saw how Otso was able to rally a startup with a tumultuous past, messy systems and multiple separate products by identifying and hiring key roles such as architecture and design leads, and setting the company on a roadmap toward a newly clarified product vision. I was genuinely inspired by his vision of how to build up the organization to reach our company mission, and the trust he always put on all my inputs, even when I was myself expressing doubts. Finally, Otso has tremendous technical knowledge, especially on how to create the technical conditions for growth and managing the risks of scaling up. He was a key contributor in all discussions about our technology selections and how to raise the bar in technical excellence and velocity without resorting to unrealistic or insensitive "blow-it-all-up" solutions. I would be glad to work with Otso again in any capacity, and I recommend him to any suitable positions.
Joni Karppinen
I worked with Otso for about 4 months in a customer project in late 2010, him being PM and scrum master, and myself a developer. Here's why I liked collaborating with him: * Otso is utterly intelligent, good with people, and experienced in organising effective meetings and agile planning sessions, which helped us get moving in the right direction rapidly. * I liked his touch as project manager: guiding things just enough to keep everything on track, while carefully avoiding stifling the team's self-direction or getting in the way of our flow. Despite being busy with other projects, he was at all times acutely aware of both big picture and relevant details, sharing the team's collective technical understanding that emerged during the autumn. * Otso has a pragmatic, flexible mindset of getting things done, smartly. He isn't religious about methodologies or tools, but not too "laizzes-faire" either. In summary, Otso has a great attitude and excellent grasp of how to make a project succeed. He's fun to work with too.
Roosa Melkko
Otso is a true leader and clearly the best supervisor I have ever had. He is an empathic leader who is a great judge of character, open to new ideas, comfortable with hypothesis-driven thinking and able to incorporate diverse opinions into his ways of thinking. In his communication, Otso is always conscious of taking the listener into account and inspires people with the idea of a shared mission. Otso is also extremely patient, and never sets himself above anyone else. At Sitedrive, I saw how Otso was able to rally a startup with a tumultuous past, messy systems and multiple separate products by identifying and hiring key roles such as architecture and design leads, and setting the company on a roadmap toward a newly clarified product vision. I was genuinely inspired by his vision of how to build up the organization to reach our company mission, and the trust he always put on all my inputs, even when I was myself expressing doubts. Finally, Otso has tremendous technical knowledge, especially on how to create the technical conditions for growth and managing the risks of scaling up. He was a key contributor in all discussions about our technology selections and how to raise the bar in technical excellence and velocity without resorting to unrealistic or insensitive "blow-it-all-up" solutions. I would be glad to work with Otso again in any capacity, and I recommend him to any suitable positions.
Joni Karppinen
I worked with Otso for about 4 months in a customer project in late 2010, him being PM and scrum master, and myself a developer. Here's why I liked collaborating with him: * Otso is utterly intelligent, good with people, and experienced in organising effective meetings and agile planning sessions, which helped us get moving in the right direction rapidly. * I liked his touch as project manager: guiding things just enough to keep everything on track, while carefully avoiding stifling the team's self-direction or getting in the way of our flow. Despite being busy with other projects, he was at all times acutely aware of both big picture and relevant details, sharing the team's collective technical understanding that emerged during the autumn. * Otso has a pragmatic, flexible mindset of getting things done, smartly. He isn't religious about methodologies or tools, but not too "laizzes-faire" either. In summary, Otso has a great attitude and excellent grasp of how to make a project succeed. He's fun to work with too.
Experience
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Sitedrive
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Finland
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Construction
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1 - 100 Employee
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Director, software development
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Nov 2021 - Present
Leading software development on a fast growing company aiming to disrupt the way construction sites operate (previous name of the company was Fira Smart) Leading software development on a fast growing company aiming to disrupt the way construction sites operate (previous name of the company was Fira Smart)
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Helsingin kaupunki – Helsingfors stad – City of Helsinki
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Finland
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Government Administration
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700 & Above Employee
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Member of the Urban Environment committee
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Aug 2021 - Present
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City Councilor
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Jan 2013 - Present
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Chair of City Council
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Jan 2019 - Jul 2021
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Vice Chair of City Board
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Jun 2015 - Jan 2019
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Chairman of ICT Division
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Oct 2013 - May 2017
Chairman of the ICT Division of the City Board, which was created 2013 to supervise and direct the ICT investments and decisions of CIty of Helsinki
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Codento Oy
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Business Consulting and Services
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Board Member
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Aug 2020 - Present
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Chair of the Board
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Jun 2019 - Aug 2020
Leading the board of a software consultancy company in a challenging transition period
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Barona
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1 - 100 Employee
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Chief Digital Officer (Industrial business lines)
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Feb 2021 - Sep 2021
Responsible for business development and improving taking advantage of digital possibilities in Barona business lines on Industry and Construction.
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Deputy Chief Digital Officer
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Dec 2019 - Feb 2021
Deputy CDO responsible for processes of digitalization in a company of >400M€ revenue and >10k personnel
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Chief Digital Officer (Construction)
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Nov 2018 - Feb 2021
Responsible for business development and improving taking advantage of digital possibilities in Barona Rakennus.
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Vihreät - De Gröna
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Finland
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Political Organizations
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1 - 100 Employee
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Chair of Helsinki council group
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Jun 2015 - Jan 2019
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CEO
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Feb 2018 - Aug 2018
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Chair of the board
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Sep 2014 - Feb 2018
Creating and growing a new national advocacy organization for cycling as a traffic mode. At the end of my period the organization had >2000 paying members, local groups on 15 cities, 5 people on payroll and noticeable influence on relevant government sectors.
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Software consultant
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May 2009 - May 2017
Agile development coaching, Lean, Software procurement, Software architecture, project management, external CTO service, software process improvement, requirement analysis...
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Member of the Board
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Mar 2014 - Jun 2015
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HKL - HST - Helsinki City Transport
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Finland
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Transportation/Trucking/Railroad
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Chair of the board
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Jan 2013 - Jan 2015
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Hookie Technologies Ltd
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Information Technology & Services
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CTO (external)
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Jul 2010 - Jan 2012
Responsible for designing and managing software development activities including embedded, PC and mobile software, cloud based backend and efficient implementation of scientific algorithms. Responsible for designing and managing software development activities including embedded, PC and mobile software, cloud based backend and efficient implementation of scientific algorithms.
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Head of Technology and Products
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Dec 2007 - Apr 2009
Responsible for the technology strategy and product development in the company.
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Team leader / Product manager / Technology Platform Manager
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Jan 2005 - Dec 2007
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Project Manager
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Mar 2002 - Jan 2005
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Member of the steering commitee (board) as student representative
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Jan 2004 - Dec 2006
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Member of board
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2002 - 2003
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Modirum
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Estonia
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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1 - 100 Employee
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Software developer
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2000 - 2002
During the 2 years the company was also known as VBI technology and Teleware Consulting During the 2 years the company was also known as VBI technology and Teleware Consulting
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Teleware
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United Kingdom
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Telecommunications
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Software developer
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2000 - 2002
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Education
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1999 - 2008
University of Helsinki
Master of Science, Computer science -
Norssi
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