Management Profiles

Management Profiles

Jacob Hsu  Chief Executive Officer

Jacob Hsu is the CEO of Symbio, a global product development and R&D outsourcing services company whose worldwide headquarters is in Beijing.

Mr. Hsu joined Symbio in 1998 and has been instrumental in growing the company from 40 engineers to over 1400 today. While at Symbio, Mr. Hsu has been involved in all facets of growing the company having previously served as President, COO, and CMO in addition to having led Symbio’s North American and Japan operations. Prior to joining Symbio, he was the CEO of Trilogica Technologies, a data aggregation software company, and CEO of Epitome Software, an IT services company focused on financial services. He began his career as an investment banker focused on mergers & acquisitions at Fox-Pitt, Kelton.

Named by Chief Executive Magazine as one of the world's Top 12 Young Global Leaders of Tomorrow in 2008 and by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2009, Mr. Hsu is a graduate of Wharton School of Business.

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Markus Suomi  President

As President of Symbio, Markus Suomi is responsible for world-wide service delivery, including operations, client technology solutions support, business development and strategic alliances. Prior to assuming his role as President of Symbio, Markus Suomi served as CEO of Flander, one of Europe’s largest mobile and embedded product outsourcing companies.

Under the direction of Mr. Suomi, Flander became the Nordic leader in Quality Assurance and one of the leading development companies for embedded software systems. Flander has been a Deloitte Fast 50 winner for the past three years ever since Deloitte started ranking Finnish technology firms.

Before joining Flander in 2007, Mr. Suomi spent 14 years at Nokia, where he held various engineering, R&D and general management positions. He played a significant role in the company’s smartphone business, leading the development of the Nokia S60 mobile software platform product and the resulting licensing business. He was also on the management board of Nokia Technology Platforms.

Mr. Suomi holds a M.Sc. from Tampere University of Technology.

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Seppo Kolari  Executive Vice President of Global Sales

As Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Seppo Kolari is responsible for driving growth and profitability for Symbio.

Previously, Mr. Kolari was Executive Vice President of Flander, a leading mobile and embedded software development company which merged with Symbio Group and Ardites to form Symbio in late 2009. In his role at Flander, Mr. Kolari was responsible for sales & marketing and business development. Prior to Flander, Mr. Kolari held senior management positions at Nokia including head of a global sales and channel development team for Nokia’s enterprise segment and head of the WLAN business where he had P&L and R&D responsibilities.

Mr. Kolari is a graduate of Tampere University of Technology and holds a M.Sc. in International Business and Software Engineering. He has close to 20 years of experience from the IT industry and sales.

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Janne Räsänen  Executive Vice President of Technology Solutions

As Executive Vice President of Technology Solutions, Janne Räsänen is responsible for translating client needs into viable and value-added next generation technology and service solutions. Mr. Räsänen brings over 12 years of experience to Symbio and was most recently CEO of Ardites, a pioneer in user experience technologies, which merged with Flander and Symbio Group to form Symbio in late 2009. Mr. Räsänen started his career by developing ABC, BPM and BSC enterprise applications, which eventually led to a career focused on entrepreneurship. He is an active contributor and board member to several software companies and start-ups in Finland.

 

 

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Jari Torkkola  Senior Vice President, Finland

As Senior Vice President, Finland, Jari Torkkola is responsible for all regional service delivery and operations, focusing on the development of next-generation technology solutions. Prior to Symbio, Mr. Torkkola was Chief Operating Officer of Flander, one of the leading development companies for mobile and embedded software systems.  Mr. Torkkola also held various management positions at Nokia for 17 years, and managed the Nokia S60 program called S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1. Mr. Torkkola holds a M.Sc. from the University of Tampere.

 

 

 

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Baoguo Zhou  Acting Country Head of Service Delivery, Greater China

Baoguo Zhou is the Acting Country Head of Service Delivery for Greater China, leading the company’s engineering and operations teams in Mainland China and Taiwan, as well as all related functions. Prior to Symbio, Mr. Zhou was Site Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the China operations at Flander. Mr. Zhou has several years of experience working overseas, as he was a guest scientist at PTB Germany, and he spent a number of years leading software development projects for the Japanese market. Mr. Zhou was also a senior engineer at the National Institute of Meteorology, specifically in the radiation division. Mr. Zhou holds a M.S. from the National Institute of Meteorology and a B.S. from Jilin University in nuclear physics.

 

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Emily Chong Vice President of Corporate Marketing

Emily Chong is the Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Symbio, leading the company's corporate communication, branding and PR strategies. Prior to Symbio, Ms. Chong resided in New York City and led multiple marketing teams at American Express, a leading global payments, network and travel company. Ms. Chong began her career developing television advertisements for American Express' card products, and later managed the Fine Hotels & Resorts program, a strategically coordinated portfolio of luxury hotel brands servicing the American Express Centurion and Platinum Card members. Ms. Chong was also part of the team that launched ExpressPay, a method of contactless payment using RFID technology embedded in credit and charge cards. Ms. Chong holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Finance from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.

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