Peter Westerstråhle

Peter Westerstråhle has been the head of Tekes Washington office since August 2007. His main responsibilities include promoting R&D collaboration between research institutes, companies, and universities in Finland and the US as well as facilitating the commercialization of these R&D efforts. Prior to his current position Peter Westerstrahle worked as a technology adviser first at Tekes Tokyo office and then since 2005 at Tekes Washington office. He received his M. Sc. degree in chemical engineering at Helsinki University of Technology in 2000. After graduation he was employed by the Finnish Foreign Trade Association (Finpro) at its Tokyo office, where he worked for three years helping Finnish companies enter the Japanese market.

Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, is the main public funding organisation for R&D and innovation in Finland. Tekes funds industrial projects as well as projects in research organisations, and especially promotes innovative, risk-intensive projects. For overseas partners Tekes offers a gateway to the Finnish technology and innovation community.