Ilpo Kuokkanen

Ilpo Kuokkanen (born April 17, 1964 in Oulu, Finland) is a Finnish entrepreneur and investor, who currently serves as chairman of the board of Directors for Coolbrook Ltd., a company developing petrochemical technology, Namida Diamond Factory Ltd., a mobile and Facebook game development firm and a private investment company Tietoklusteri Ltd.

Coolbrook Ltd announced in February 2017, that the company would receive EUR 3.6 million from Tekes, a Finnish funding agency for innovation, for the development of plastic technology innovations using the ethene cracking method. The CEO of the company is Harri Johannesdahl.

Kuokkanen has also served as an initial investor with Norsepower Ltd., a Finnish marine technology company developing Rotor Sail Solution. In March 2017, Norsepower announced partnership with Maersk Tankers.

In the mid-1990s, Kuokkanen played a central role in the creation and development of a global internet services company, Saunalahti Group, where he served as chairman of the board of directors until 2001.

Background

As a young man, Kuokkanen had a promising career in ice hockey, but began studying law at the University of Turku in 1985. Early on in his career, he used his waiter's salary in order to invest in the stock market with some fellow students. Eventually, they became significant minority shareholders in a number of publicly listed companies in Finland.

In 1990, the stock market boom ended in Finland and the banks began to restrict large transactions involving company shares as well as other activities related to investment in prospective companies. Finland's increasing bank debt, as a result of large-scale acquisitions, caused a damaging currency devaluation for Finland, which brought about additional economic pressures for both the banks and businesses.

As a result of these difficult economic circumstances, Finnish banks began to rescue risky investments by implementing a rescue operation that utilized and exploited the exchange-traded assets of financially viable companies.

During Finland's unstable economic climate, Kuokkanen and his partners acquired more than 10% of a minority stake in a number of the companies, such as Sentra Ltd, whose money and assets were being taken advantage of by the banks. These efforts prompted a number of shareholders to take notice and Kuokkanen led the charge to protect companies from exploitation by the banks through a number of legal actions and procedures that he learned while studying law in university. The banks refused to give in to these actions and a very public legal battle ensued, that garnered significant media attention. By defending minority shareholders, Kuokkanen received support from the media and the public.

As a result of Kuokkanen's efforts, the banks acquiesced and numerous company assets were saved and protected.

The Saunalahti Era

Kuokkanen eventually gave up the shares of the companies he defended in 1996 and moved on to start one of the first internet operators in Finland. The company was founded under the name Nettilinja Ltd. The company later changed its name to Saunalahti Ltd., then to Jippii Ltd., and today it is back to one of its original names: Saunalahti Group.

Kuokkanen negotiated the merger with two independent telecommunication and internet companies: DLC Data Link and Sci-fi Communications. In 1998, and under Kuokkanen’s leadership, the three companies merged with the newly formed company representing approximately 25% of Finland’s total internet subscriptions.

After this successful merger, Kuokkanen would go on to make nearly twenty more acquisitions, amalgamating almost all of the smaller, private internet operators in Finland. The original three-company merger, as well as the other subsequent acquisitions, transferred shares in a manner that protected the investments of both the acquired company founders and CEO’s as well as Saunalahti’s shareholders.

During Kuokkanen’s time at the helm of Saunalahti, he led a number of groundbreaking initiatives in the telecom and internet field. These included: Wi-Fi technology implementation, WLAN calling and the use of rented connections on mobile networks. During this time, Saunalahti also expanded its operations to more than ten other European countries.

During Saunalahti's growth and expansion, Finland was widely known as an international leader when it came to the development of internet and telecommunications technology.

In 2000, Saunalahti listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The company set out to break the telecom monopoly in Europe and worked to expand Wi-Fi technology to other European countries. The company can be recognized as one of the original Wi-Fi technology developers.

The company's plan for expansion into the telecommunications market began to face opposition from the German state-owned company, Deutsche Telecom, and the Dutch state-owned KPN-Qwest. These companies prevented and delayed the implementation of Saunalahti's broader European expansion plans. These companies had greater control in mainland Europe and adversely impacted Saunalahti's expansion plans. As a result, Saunalahti was unable to expand the operations of the German internet operator it took over; ultimately, leading to a deterioration of the company's liquidity and foreign operations.

The aforementioned takeover, and the financial issues that followed as a result, forced Saunalahti's management into legal proceedings that have been adjudicated by different courts for nearly ten years. Legal proceedings were concluded in June 2013 with a Finnish Supreme Court decision that acquitted all involved Saunalahti executives. As a result of the Supreme Court ruling, Saunalahti executives received more than EUR 4 million in legal costs from the Finnish government.

Philosophy studies

The legal proceedings surrounding Saunalahti, compounded by the false accusations and negative media attention, prevented Kuokkanen from business operations for a number of years. As a businessman with an entrepreneurial spirit, Kuokkanen utilized this opportunity for self-reflection and personal development. In 2007, Kuokkanen visited India and immersed himself in the Vedanta philosophy. He ended up studying the philosophy for several years under the guidance of Swami Parthasarathy.

Guided by this philosophical and paradigm shift, Kuokkanen has returned to business with an active leadership role in Coolbrook Ltd. and Namida Diamond Factory Ltd.