Antero Vesterinen appointed as Innovation Director

Antero Vesterinen, M.Sc. (Econ), has been appointed as Director of Metropolia’s Smart and Creative City Innovation Hub. He assumed his role on 7 January 2026.

Throughout his career, Vesterinen has built strong expertise in the field of public funding. He has extensive experience with projects funded by the EU, Business Finland and the Academy of Finland, where he has held various roles in ideation, planning, funding applications, as well as project management and reporting. In addition, he has provided strategic and innovation consultancy on public funding. Vesterinen joins Metropolia from Spinverse, an innovation consultancy firm, and prior to that worked at Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education in the Espoo Region.

“It’s fantastic to be working at Metropolia and to develop the public funding portfolio further. Metropolia offers excellent facilities for research, development and innovation, and the goals are ambitious – exactly as they should be,” says Vesterinen.

He will lead the Smart and Creative Innovation Hub with confidence towards the future.

“We are ready to embark on new projects together with our partners to create better urban environments. Please feel free to reach out to me – I’m happy to discuss different opportunities.”

Building a sustainable future together

In Metropolia’s three phenomenon-based innovation hubs, staff, students and partners work together to find solutions to global challenges and societal needs.

Our innovation hubs are ecosystem-based; solutions are created with different actors through bold thinking, as well as working and learning together.

Further information

Antero Vesterinen, Innovation Director
Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
+358 50 355 1898

Miimu Airaksinen, RDI Director
Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
+358 40 770 4832

firstname.lastname [at] metropolia.fi (firstname[dot]lastname[at]metropolia[dot]fi)