| Birthplace | Finland |
| University of Wisconsin, B.S | 1987 |
| Int'l bus., C.S., Finance | |
| INSEAD, MBA | 1992 |
| International Management |
reuters
Mika Salmi is a Finnish-born American entrepreneur and pioneer in new media. His success in establishing one of the world’s first online entertainment companies, Atom Entertainment, and in helping transform MTV Networks into a global leader in new media have earned Mika Salmi widespread recognition as a visionary in his field.
Most recently Mika Salmi was the President of Global Digital Media for MTV Networks/Viacom, where he oversaw more than 1500 employees in 60 countries and worked across MTVN’s many brands, including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, and over 30 others. Upon joining Viacom, Salmi correctly predicted the trend towards fragmentation online, championed an open approach to media ahead of other major players, and increased Viacom’s presence in the growing area of games—helping Viacom more than quadruple its digital revenues.
Salmi was previously CEO and Founder of Atom Entertainment, which sold to Viacom for $200 million in 2006. In 1998 Salmi established the company’s first brand AtomFilms, having recognized the promise of short-form content and the use of new digital platforms for its distribution. At AtomFilms, he discovered and nurtured diverse talent such as Oscar-nominated Jason Reitman and internet phenomena JibJab. AtomFilms is seen today as a pioneer in online video and was one of the first user-generated video sites—years before the advent of YouTube.
AtomFilms merged with Shockwave.com, the Internet’s first casual games company, in 2000. Later renamed Atom Entertainment, the company purchased AddictingGames in 2005, becoming the largest casual games company on the web. Today, Atom Entertainment’s consumer brands remain leaders in online entertainment.
Throughout his career Salmi has been on the forefront of new developments. He started in the music business, where he discovered and signed the now Grammy-awarded, multi-platinum Nine Inch Nails. In the early 1990s, he was among the first Western music executives to explore opportunities in post-communist Eastern Europe for EMI Music. Later, at Real Networks, the inventive digital audio and video company, Salmi successfully cultivated and cemented the first relationships between an Internet company and major media players.
Regularly included in lists of industry and cultural trailblazers, Salmi has appeared in Vanity Fair, Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Fortune, Wired and numerous international publications. He has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Newsweek, USA Today, Business Week, and several other US and foreign newspapers. Salmi has appeared on television news programs and morning talk shows, including ABC News, BBC News, CNN, CNBC, and The Today Show, and has delivered high profile keynote speeches around the world.
Salmi has worked in several foreign countries, and serves on Boards of Directors for start-up companies in the US, Europe, and Japan. Current and past boards have included innovators in technology and clean energy such as ImageMetrics (Los Angeles), Shockwave KK (Japan), Blinkbox (London), Songbird (San Francisco), Pressplane (Seattle), and Propel Biofuels (Seattle). He recently became Chairman of Sulake (Helsinki) the parent company of the pioneering virtual world for teens - Habbo Hotel. Salmi is also a voting member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and serves on the steering committee for the international business school INSEAD.
Mika Salmi was born in Finland and speaks Finnish, French, and English fluently, with proficiency in Spanish. He graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and earned his MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
| Company | Date | Round | Size | Participants |
| Inkd | 9/08 | Series A | $1.7M | 11 |
