Meet The Shortcut Board
“Diversity as an engine for growth” is a motto that fittingly sums up the essence of The Shortcut community, it is no surprise, then, that its supporters behind the scenes come from a diverse range of backgrounds, both personal and professional. Something our board members do share though, is the inclination to give back to the community and contribute their time and expertise to meaningfully increase the presence and influence of international talent in Finnish society via The Shortcut.
Serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Moaffak Ahmed is a co-founder of The Shortcut. Never having applied for a job, he has been exceptionally successful in creating his own; he has founded ten companies, notably Fintech company Trema and has invested in fifty startups. In addition to his pro-bono role as Chairman of The Shortcut board, he is also Chairman of Startup Foundation and a board member of Slush. Having “seen all the sides of the table”, Moaffak can focus on the bigger picture; “Finnish language is not an obstacle in this ecosystem,” he feels strongly that Finland should be striving to attract and integrate international talent at a time where larger, more established countries are closing their borders. For him, optimising the untapped potential of those who have not necessarily grown up in Finland is a core value of The Shortcut. As well as enriching Finnish society, nurturing international talent could also play a significant role in elevating Finland on a global scale. Why couldn’t Helsinki become the next internationally-recognised hub of innovation?
Esa Suominen has a background in public affairs and government relations in such areas as transport, communications, education and culture. He is therefore an invaluable advocate for The Shortcut’s case and hopes to raise our profile as well as “give us a voice” through his liaison with public entities and with the decision-makers of Finnish society.
Annina Huhtala is a seasoned communicator with previous experience at high-profile Finnish media outlets, including Yle and Helsingin Sanomat. She is a co-founder of Kaskas Media, an agency unique to the Nordics geared towards making valuable scientific data and research less intimidating and more intelligible for anyone outside the scientific community. She has an eye for taking complex things and clarifying them in a way that makes them accessible to everyone. She is inspired and motivated by helping projects to take their form and accelerate growth, which is an indispensable asset to a young and rapidly-expanding organisation like The Shortcut.
Nicolas Dolenc started his professional career in basketball during his teens and retired when he hit twenty to study computer science and communication at Aalto University. He got his big break in the startup scene organising parties for the heavily-attended entrepreneurship conference Slush and currently has a day-job as a “human catalyst” for Facebook advertising giant, Smartly.io. Nicolas describes himself as “opportunistic” and a “motivator” and has helped and encouraged many of his friends of immigrant backgrounds to establish themselves in Finnish society and recognise their value. His deep-seated motivation to help immigrants in particular may have, to some extent, been a result of seeing his father face testing challenges as a Brazilian making his way in Finland. Nicolas is warm and sincere about his readiness to contribute as a board member; with the help of his vast networks and propensity for engaging and matching talent, he has dedicated himself to “bridging gaps between project leaders and The Shortcut”
Self-proclaimed, impact-driven business scholar Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä has been involved since the inception of The Shortcut. As a prolific academic professor, he is currently leading research at Aalto University on our talent programme, hoping to evaluate and help optimise the societal impact of our operations. He also has a keen interest in entrepreneurship in extreme settings and has affiliations with The Academy of Finland and The Royal Society based in Cambridge, UK.
Aside from their ambitions for The Shortcut, the board have some wisdom to impart on how to get the most out of this community; Jukka-Pekka confesses that volunteering has played a critical role in getting him involved in exciting projects within the ecosystem, mixing with diverse groups of people and in empowering him to reflect on his strengths as well as on what it is that he doesn’t like doing.
Annina adds that finding a crowd and a space where you can bounce your ideas and be supported is an essential first step to validation, self-belief and motivation, whether that then leads to securing co-founders that complement your skills in order to launch a business idea or finding your place in the ecosystem.
Nicolas concludes in true motivational-speaker fashion with a message to The Shortcut community: “there are going to be a lot of people who will not believe in you because of their own biases, their own fears and their own failures and it’s not going to be easy, one of these people might be yourself not believing you can do the stuff you want to do. It will just take a lot of perseverance but through that experience you will find yourself and when you do, that’s when the magic starts happening.”
