Xiphera’s board in 2024 from upper left – Markku Räsänen, Matti Tommiska, Kimmo Halunen, Kimmo Järvinen. Absent: Henri Palomäki.
We at Xiphera have always rooted for the knowledge and expertise in our team, both in the headquarters in Finland, as well as within our global sales network. Besides our brilliant people in the headquarters and sales network, the team includes a board of five people: the chair of the board, Xiphera’s co-founder and CTO Kimmo Järvinen, co-founder and CEO Matti Tommiska, as well as Henri Palomäki, Kimmo Halunen, and Markku Räsänen. Besides the co-founders Kimmo and Matti, each board member brings their own knowledge and expertise to the table.
Henri Palomäki has a background in corporate finance – besides being in Xiphera’s board since summer 2023, he works as an outsourced CFO for Xiphera and a handful of other Finnish growth companies. He got familiar with Xiphera first during the company’s financing round in 2022. According to Henri, he has been able to familiarise himself quite well with the world of cryptography and hardware-based security during his time with Xiphera. He feels excited and comfortable to be part of the team, both as the member of the board as well as in the CFO role.
Kimmo Halunen brings in a strong expertise from the academia and the field of cybersecurity. He is a professor of cybersecurity in University of Oulu and National Defence University of Finland and has a PhD in Computer Engineering, with his work focusing on cryptographic hash functions and mathematics. He met Xiphera’s CTO Kimmo Järvinen in KU Leuven, Belgium as a visiting researcher back in 2014, and has been familiar with Xiphera since the beginning of our story in 2017. Kimmo joined the board in summer 2024, and he has been happy to follow Xiphera’s story now also from inside the company. Kimmo’s research and academic background in cybersecurity, as well as strong expertise in the defence sector, bring a fresh angle to the board of the company.
With Henri’s strong background in finance and startups, and Kimmo’s deep expertise in cybersecurity, the fifth member of the board, Markku Räsänen, is a mix of both worlds. He has a background in running and operating in various technology businesses, including embedded system industries. Today, he is a board member and advisor in multiple companies (including a board seat at Xiphera), and a CEO and co-founder of a Finnish AI startup called ConfidentialMind. Markku familiarised himself with Xiphera first in 2020, and later, during the first financing round in 2022, he invested in the company. He joined the board in summer 2024 with Kimmo Halunen, and has been happy to be onboard ever since.
Different in background, unified in trust
The Xiphera board – with Henri joining in 2023 and Markku and Kimmo the following year – is now more versatile and unified than ever. “I have big expectations for Xiphera”, says Henri. “The new board is now filled with new kind of expertise, and the versatility of the backgrounds of the board members benefits the whole company”.
Each board member brings in their own experience and knowledge: Henri from finance and startup world, Kimmo from cybersecurity and academia, and Markku from business and startup scene in technology and cybersecurity companies. What makes the board unified is the strong trust in what the company does and what the future holds for Xiphera.
All three board members find Xiphera to be well positioned for the increasing demand for proven security solutions. “Xiphera’s expertise is very relevant, and the relevance only grows in these volatile times. The embedded technology evolves rapidly, and the knowledge of securing hardware-based connections and information is highly needed”, says Markku.
The future of security is filled with questions regarding e.g. quantum computer attacks, securing Artificial Intelligence, and building trust in an unstable and unsecure world – Xiphera is well set to respond these questions with its portfolio of cryptographic IP cores, including xQlave® family of Post-Quantum Cryptography and nQrux® family of Hardware Trust Engines. “The knowledge in hardware-based cryptography, combined with strong understanding of the theory behind it – in other words, how things work on paper and how to implement the theory in practice – is a very unique combination of expertise”, Kimmo concludes.
The trust for the future from the board is not only evident in words – Henri and Markku have also made personal investments in Xiphera!
