Mika Salmi
| Mika Salmi | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 16, 1965 Finland |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Businessperson |
Mika Salmi (born 16 November 1965) is a Finnish-born American entrepreneur, and executive in technology and media.
Biography
Salmi is a senior advisor at The Raine Group, an investment and advisory firm focused on the media, entertainment and sports industries.[1] He also serves on the Boards of INSEAD, Trace, Pixvana, CreativeLive, and Feed.fm and actively advises numerous startups.
Prior to Raine, he served as CEO of CreativeLive..
Salmi promoted new media as president of global digital media for MTV Networks/Viacom. He reported to the chairman and CEO of MTV Networks, Judy McGrath.
Salmi was CEO and founder of Atom Entertainment,[1] which was purchased by Viacom for $200 million in 2006. In 1998 Salmi founded AtomFilms,[1] an online film and humor site, which featured artists such as Jason Reitman and JibJab. Atom had three brands, AtomFilms, Shockwave and AddictingGames, which together had over 40 million monthly active users. AtomFilms was one of the first and largest online video companies and was the YouTube of its day. Shockwave was the largest game brand on the internet and was complemented by AddictingGames, which was the fastest growing casual games website.
Before founding Atom, Salmi worked at RealNetworks. Salmi began his entertainment career in the music business, working at Sony Music International, EMI Music and TVT Records. While at TVT Records he saw multi-Platinum selling and Grammy winning artist Nine Inch Nails opening for another band, and asked for a demo tape. He worked with TVT's head of A&R, Kitty Overton, who, with Steve Gottlieb, the founder of TVT, to sign the band.
Other companies where Salmi is serving or has served on the board of directors include Inkd (acquired by RealSelf), Elisa (Finland's largest telecom company), Blinkbox (acquired by Tesco), Image Metrics (went public), Shockwave KK (acquired by Transcosmos/Japan), and Propel Renewable Fuels (innovator in alternative energy distribution).
Regularly included in lists of industry trailblazers, Salmi has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Fortune, Wired and numerous international publications. He has been profiled by [[The Wall Street Journal]], The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Newsweek, USA Today, Business Week, and several other US and foreign newspapers. Salmi has appeared on television news programs and morning talk shows, including ABC News, BBC News, CNN, CNBC, and The Today Show, and has delivered high profile keynote speeches around the world.
Salmi has an MBA from INSEAD.
References
- 1 2 3 Houston, Frank (June 15, 2000). "Hollywood Flirts With Short Films on the Web". The New York Times.