Nokia Foundation Award Goes to MySQL CEO Merten Mickos

CGIDir
Thursday, November 23, 2006; 06:33 AM

The EUR 10,000 award was presented at the Foundation's scholarship awards ceremony on November 22, when the Foundation celebrated its 12th year of operation.

Mårten Mickos has strong merits in the leadership positions of international high-tech companies. Since 2001, he has been CEO of the Open Source company, MySQL. Mickos is known as a strong advocate of the Open Source community and MySQL has been at the forefront of developing successful business around open source. Mickos is a popular key-note speaker at international technology events where his opinions about commercializing and inspiring innovation are noted and discussed widely.

"Every company makes focused investments to maintain and inspire innovativeness. There is a lot of power in open innovation. The example of Internet today strengthens the belief that Nokia has held for a long time: Open standards and platforms create a foundation for success. They enable interoperability of technologies and encourage innovativeness and healthy competition, which in turn increases consumer choice and opens entirely new markets," Jorma Ollila, Chairman of Nokia's Board of Directors, noted in his address at the Foundation's ceremony.

This year, Nokia Foundation awarded 88 scholarships totaling EUR 450,680. Of the scholarships, 79 targeted the support of fast-progressing post-graduate studies aiming for a doctorate in information and data communications technology, three were for visiting fellows and researchers, and five for visits by internationally distinguished lecturers.

Previous recipients of the Nokia Foundation's annual award were Lauri Kuokkanen ( 1995 ), Pekka Tarjanne ( 1996 ), Linus Torvalds ( 1997 ), Arto Salomaa ( 1998 ), Kullervo Nieminen ( 1999 ), Osmo A. Wiio ( 2000 ), Ilkka Haikala ( 2001 ), Veikko Rintamäki ( 2002 ), George Metakides ( 2003 ), Heikki Lyytinen ( 2004 ), and Moncef Gabbouj ( 2005 ).

Nokia Foundation was formed in 1995. The Foundation supports the scientific development of information and telecommunications technologies and promotes education of the sector in Finland.