Follow the money: How Valkee’s leaders are cashing in

Personal tax data is public in Finland. Tax offices have terminals where the data can be viewed easily. The screens look like this:

somerto-screen-2012

Screenshots are on file for all of the following. Numbers rounded to x1000€. The mean wage in Finland is 3.200, and at the median 2.900 Euro monthly.

 

Pekka Somerto, CEO

2013: 226.000 Euro (18.800€/month)

2012: 355.000 Euro (29.500€/month)

Joined Valkee in January 2012. The extraordinary 2012 sum may partially stem from a “golden handshake” from Nokia, his former employer. The typical way to get rid off such high cost managers. Somerto made 242.000 in 2011.

Somerto is paid like CEOs of companies listed at the Helsinki stock exchange. With that kind of firm. The finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb gets about 11.000€/month.

 

Juuso Nissilä, CSO

2013: 94.000 Euro (7.800€/month)

2012: 76.000 Euro (6.300€/month)

2011: 79.000 Euro (6.600€/month)

Nissilä was asked on Radio Helsinki, how much he’s cashing in. He refused to answer. He’d just posed with a new car Ferrari on facebook instagram. No further questions.

 

Aki Backman, CTO

2013: 107.000 Euro (8.900€/month)

A Chief Technology Officer for this product. With such a pay check.

 

Antti Aunio, CTO (-2012)

2012: 83.000 Euro (6.900€/month)

2011: 84.000 Euro (7.000€/month)

Valkee’s co-founder has left, which clearly downed his income: To 58.000 in 2013.

 

Timo Ahopelto, Chairman

2013: 82.000 Euro (6.800€/month)

2012: 68.000 Euro (5.700€/month)

The LifeLine Ventures investor gets the smallest pay check – from his Finland activities.

 

Overview for direct links (pure numbers, avoiding my comments):

valkee-cxo-income

 Note that Valkee is steadily losing ground, making losses for years, and exists on tax and investors’ money.

***

In the meantime, the company tells about a journal publication which was portrayed already here. Of course it’s foul. I will not explain it again. The journal has a problem now, as have the authors.

For those who aren’t familiar with clinical studies: Professor Timo Partonen, head of the mood disorder department at the finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and a world-leading expert for Seasonal Affective Disorder, commented on that study

[this is] scientific misconduct.

Partonen is, amongst many other tasks, editor-in-chief of the Annals of Medicine.

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