Dopplr’s Founding Investor Becomes Their CEO

Written on 9th December 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.

Dopplr is a London/Finland based online service designed to let people who travel frequently know when their friends/colleagues will be traveling to the same area they’re traveling to or live in.

On January 1st Marko Ahtisaari, Dopplr’s founding investor, is to become the startup’s full time CEO. Current CEO, Lisa Sounio  will remain with the company as chairman of the board and divide her time between her other company, design strategy and PR agency Sonay.

Ahtisaari initially met Dopplr co-founder Matt Jones as director of design strategy for Nokia. He was then appointed Head of Brand & Design at Blyk, ad-funded mobile network, and will continue in an advisory role for the company.

Ahtisaari says:

“Nearly two years ago, one evening in London, the Dopplr idea of smarter travel was born. I’m delighted to be joining the team as we move forward with our vision of smarter travel for the growing Dopplr community worldwide.”

In September Dopplr announced its second financing round from a group of prominent international investors as well as original high profile investors Saul Klein of Seedcamp, serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, Reid Hoffman of Linkedin and prolific investor/activist Joi Ito.