Sami Kaksonen

Sami Kaksonen has a diverse work experience spanning multiple roles and companies. Sami currently works as a Data Architect at DataStax since the year 2022. Prior to this, they worked at AWAKE.AI as the VP of Sales & Marketing from the year 2019 to 2022.

Sami Kaksonen had a long tenure at Vaadin, where they held various leadership positions. From the year 2013 to 2019, they served as the VP of Sales, responsible for global sales and managing sales teams in multiple countries. During this time, they successfully transformed the sales engine into a highly specialized international team and established a Customer Success function that significantly reduced churn rates. From the year 2011 to 2013, they were the VP of Commercial Products, leading a team focused on building profitable subscription business for Vaadin.

Before joining Vaadin, Sami worked as a Sales Director at Neusoft Mobile Solutions from the year 2009 to 2011, where they performed tasks related to sales, account management, and business development. Prior to that, they were a Business Unit Director at Sesca Mobile Software from the year 2007 to 2009, with profit and loss responsibility for consulting and project development in the South-West region of Finland.

Sami Kaksonen also has a strong background in entrepreneurship. Sami served as the CEO of Almitas Oy from the year 2005 to 2009, where they handled general management, strategy, business development, HR, sales, and marketing. Sami also managed the acquisition process and business negotiations with Sesca Technologies Oy. Additionally, they held the CEO position at Almitas Solutions Oy, a subsidiary of Almitas Oy, where they focused on general management and sales of professional software development services.

Prior to their entrepreneurial roles, Sami worked as a Senior Systems Designer at Almitas from the year 1999 to 2005 and as a Software Developer at Bentley Development Finland from the year 1996 to 1999.

Sami Kaksonen has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Turku University. Sami also holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Turku, which they obtained from 1994 to 2002. In addition to their formal education, Sami Kaksonen has obtained several certifications, including the Apache Cassandra 3 Developer Associate Certification from DataStax in October 2022, the Hubspot Sales Software certification from HubSpot Academy in July 2019, the Inbound Certified certification from HubSpot Academy in July 2019, the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification from Scrum Alliance in April 2016, and the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification from Scrum Alliance in April 2011.