Introducing the new Chair of the Tehnopol Supervisory Board, Sven Illing

The new Chair of the Tehnopol Supervisory Board from March is the Vice-Rector for Entrepreneurship at TalTech, Sven Illing. Illing was passed the baton by the previous Chair, Aivar Riisalu.

Sven Illing is an advisor and investor in startup technology companies, and he founded the startup accelerators GameFounders and Buildit. He has been Deputy Mayor at the City Government of Tartu with responsibility for entrepreneurship, and Director of Development at Tartu Science Park. His Bachelor’s degree is from the University of Tartu and his Master’s from Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, and he has also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Università Bocconi in Italy. His interests outside of work include mountain climbing and endurance sports.

We asked the new Chair of the Supervisory Board what his first steps in his new position will be and what he thinks the strengths of Tehnopol are.

What contact have you had with Tehnopol previously?

I have known about the work of Tehnopol since it was founded in 2003 because I worked at Tartu Science Park, which has been a partner of Tehnopol for years. I was on the supervisory board of Tartu Science Park in 2003-2005 and its executive board in 2006-2010. I have also been an entrepreneur on the Tehnopol territory.

What are your initial plans as Chair of the Tehnopol Supervisory Board, and what is your longer-term goal for the position?

I certainly want to see better communication and cooperation than we have had so far between Tehnopol and Tallinn University of Technology.

The goal is the further development of the technology park, for it to become and remain one of the best locations in Tallinn for innovative businesses.

What do you think the strengths of Tehnopol are, and where do you think more attention than before should be focused?

The strength of Tehnopol is its great team and its strong ecosystem, as the park is home to over 200 innovative businesses and right next door to Estonia’s only technical university and its 10,000 students.

The completion this year of the new building, Tehnopol 3, will give a boost to the whole park. The ecosystem will be enriched by new and exciting companies.

We have nearly finished writing the new strategy for Tehnopol, which will set out the directions in which we should focus more attention and how we should successfully follow them.

Tehnopol welcomes our new Chair of the Supervisory Board, and we wish him every success in his work!