Mika Salmi
Mika Salmi (born 16 November 1965) in Helsinki, Finland, is a pioneer in new media. Active in the entrepreneurial community, Salmi has started numerous companies and has helped many more as an investor and/or board member.
He was President of Global Digital Media for MTV Networks/Viacom overseeing more than 1500 employees in 60 countries. Reporting directly to the Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks, Judy McGrath and as a member of her senior strategy team, Salmi worked across MTVN’s many brands, including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, and over 30 others.
Prior to that Salmi was CEO and Founder of Atom Entertainment, which was purchased by Viacom for $200 million in 2006. In 1998 Salmi founded AtomFilms, a pioneer in online entertainment, which served as a launching pad for new artists such as Jason Reitman and JibJab. Atom Entertainment, which includes brands Shockwave and AddictingGames, became a leader in online entertainment, with over 30 million unique users a month.
Before founding Atom, Salmi worked at RealNetworks forging the first relationships between an Internet company and traditional media companies. Salmi began his entertainment career in the music business, working at Sony Music International, EMI Music and TVT Records. At TVT Records he discovered and signed multi-Platinum selling and Grammy winning artist Nine Inch Nails.
Since August 2009 Salmi has been chairman of the board at Sulake Sulake. Headquartered in Helsinki, Sulake runs the world's largest virtual world, Habbo.
He is also Executive Chairman of Pressplane (Seattle) and on the Board of the global business school INSEAD, which has campuses in France, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
Salmi has an MBA from INSEAD.
