Sami Niemi

Biography

I love technology, and the magic it enables. Tech is often too complex, and can always be simplified still letting the user do more. I like to think beyond the current established ways to do things – there is always a way to do things very different and very much better. Early on my great passion was to explore the capabilities of computers to express things visually; initially by coding demos in machine language on Commodore 64, finally leading to founding of Scalado (2000), which grew to become one of the leading Mobile Imaging SW companies in the world with more than 1 Billion licenses sold worldwide to essentially the entire mobile telecom industry, including both OEMs licensing SW to their devices for innovative imaging capabilities, and HW vendors licensing IPR to ensure advantages in sales toward the same OEMs. My other passion is travelling – meeting and understanding different people and cultures; I was born in Finland, moved to Sweden at the age of 15, and have lived in the US a few times. I also chaired the Erasmus Student Network during my studies, arranging activities to connect the foreign students with the locals. The big international party grew to become so popular, that we ended up making money for the university, rather than spending it! I have a Master’s Degree in EE, having studied both at the Lund Institute of Technology, and at NCSU in the US. During the studies I founded Scalado along with 3 co-founders. My key contribution to Scalado was to define our products and vision, and even more importantly connecting and engaging with the top executives of our industry making them adopt our vision as their own – naturally moving us to the core of their product making. I travelled a lot! In July 2012 Nokia acquired Scalado to ensure their leadership within imaging, and I took over the Program Management for the Photography area, as Director and GPM, with R&D teams in three countries. I also oversee the Lund site, as a site manager. The products that we’ve released are seen as benchmarks within mobile Photography, having received several awards, among them the Red Dot design award for best software. In September 2013 Microsoft (announced to) acquired Nokia’s Devices Business. My responsibilities at Microsoft include the end to end Photography experience within the devices organization, broadened to also cover the Capture related experience for the Windows 10 operating system and beyond. Yes, I still travel a lot! As an entrepreneur, I believe that there is no such thing as good luck in long term success, it’s all about active creation of opportunities, understanding which ones are real and worth pursuing, and consistent long term execution toward your vision with a great and empowered team living and breathing the vision.

Research Interest

 Programm Development