Mr. L. (Linnar) Viik - Main contents

Linnar Viik (1965) is an Estonian information technology entrepeneur and IT visionary. Mr. Viik has been deeply involved in the push for the digitalising of Estonia, with a leading role for government and public services, since 1999. He co-founded and currently is programma director at the e-Governance Academy, and has been and still is a lecturer at several academic institutes. Viik holds several international advisory functions, including a membership of the board on digital affairs at the European Institute for Innovation and Technology. He has written over 120 articles and 10 reports, mostly on the topics of Knowledge Based Economy and Implications of Information Society.

Next to his role in the public sector Linnar Viik is still heavily involved in two of the companies he helped found, Mobi Solutions and Pocopay as well as serving as a member of the board at Fortumo. From 2007 to 2010 Viik was a director at Skype.

Name and surname

Linnar Viik

Date of birth

26th of February, 1965

Place of birth

Tallinn, Estonia (part of the Soviet Union at the time)

Academic

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  MSc in Information Technology, Tallinn Technical University
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  MSc/postgraduate diploma in International Economy, Helsinki University of Technology

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  management consultant, KPMG, 1993 to 1995
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  chairman of the board, Meediamaa Ltd., 1995 to 1998
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  chairman supervisory board, Netexptress Ltd., 1998 to 1999
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  advisor to the prime minister of Estonia, 1999 to 2001
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  co-founder and member of the board, Mobi Solutions, since 2001
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  co-founder and programme director, e-Governance Academy, since 2002
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  director at Skype Technologies Ltd., 2007 to 2010
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  co-founder and (after a brief tenure as CEO) member of the board, since 2014

Selected honoraries and functions

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  lecturer, Estonian IT college, 2000 to 2017
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  member of the Business Advisory Group, Nordic Investement Bank, 2009 to 2013
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  member of the supervisory board, EIT Digital, since 2018 (he served as member of the board between 2008 to 2014)
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  visiting lecturer, Tallinn University, 2010 to 2014
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  chairman board, Open Estonia Foundation, 2010 t0 2014
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  member board of directors, Fortumo Ltd., since 2012
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  visiting lecturer, University of Tartu, since 2015

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  played a large role in the 'Estonian Internet Voting' project
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  played a large role in the 'eID card' and the later 'eSignature' projects
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  has pushed for for innovation assessments to be included in investment decisions