xLab welcomed two new members to our advisory board this summer!

Varun Nagaraj and Valt Vesikallio

Varun Nagaraj

Dr. Varun Nagaraj has had a 30-year career in product innovation in Boston and Silicon Valley, during which he held CEO and other executive leadership roles at several venture-funded start-ups and public companies developing communications, computing, IoT, and AI products. He was also a partner at PRTM Management Consulting (now part of PwC), working with Fortune 1000 companies on their organizational innovation initiatives.

He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, a master's in computer engineering from North Carolina State University, an MBA from Boston University, and a PhD from Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.

Nagaraj's research on how teams learn and innovate in unfamiliar contexts has been published in the Academy of Management (AOM) proceedings and in the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), and is featured in the upcoming 2021 Handbook of Digital Entrepreneurship.

As a teacher, Nagaraj brings a lively mix of practice and theory to the classroom, and has developed and taught MBA, masters, and undergraduate classes on digital transformation and product management at Boston University (on the edX MOOC platform), Pepperdine University, and the University of Notre Dame.

Nagaraj has recently been elected to serve as the practitioner-at-large for the Academy of Management's Organizational Communications and Information Systems (OCIS) division.

Valt Vesikallio
 

Valt Vesikallio is senior vice president of global services at Hyland Software, leading software provider of content services in the world. In his role, Valt is responsible for the services P&L spanning over 800 resources worldwide and over 150M in annual services revenue. 

Valt joined the company in 2012 as a director of consulting and the company’s services related revenues have more than tripled during his tenure. Prior to joining Hyland, Valt worked for Lawson Software in the capacity of a practice director for their healthcare vertical. He has over 25 years of progressive experience in the software services including extensive big five consulting experience.
 
Valt received his MBA from University of Helsinki and undergraduate degree from Michigan State University. He was born and raised in Helsinki, Finland, but has now called the Cleveland area home for the past 18 years.