Former Nokia President Joining Venture Capital Firm

By Victor Godinez, The Dallas Morning News

Oct. 31–Kari-Pekka Wilska, former president of Nokia Inc. in the Americas, is joining Austin Ventures as a partner, the venture capital firm will announce today. Mr. Wilska, 57, retired from Irving-based Nokia earlier this year and had been looking for a job with a venture firm.

“I always liked working with new ventures and start-up companies,” he said Friday from his Fort Worth home. “I wanted to share my time and expertise with small private companies. So I was looking where my profile would fit.”

Mr. Wilska said Austin Ventures appealed to him both because of the company’s investment portfolio and because he wouldn’t have to relocate to Austin.

“My home is over here,” he said. “I have no plans to move down there.”

Mr. Wilska said he’ll focus on telecom deals, at least initially.

“It may not be limited to telecommunications, but in related businesses” as well, he said. “Right now, I’m looking pretty much in that area, telecommunications software, components or semiconductors.”

“K-P’s depth of experience and contacts, both domestic and international, will be extremely valuable to our current and future portfolio companies,” Venu Shamapant, general partner at Austin Ventures, said in a news release.

Austin Ventures has $3 billion under management that it invests in young companies, mostly technology firms in Texas and the Southwest.

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