Brand and design expert Lisa Sounio (MSc, Econ., IDBM) is the CEO of Sonay Ltd. Sonay, founded in 2004, is a consultancy specialized in product development, design strategy and PR. Sonay's clients include Artek, Nokia, Valio, Kone and UPM.

Aiming at the humanity of web 2.0 design
In 2007 Sounio co-founded Dopplr, an online service for frequent business travellers. The founders were friends travelling around the world and they wanted to create inspiring meetings more frequently. Sounio is the Chairman of the Board of Dopplr Ltd.

Before founding the companies Sounio worked on brand marketing, export sales and product development. As Brand Manager of Iittala, the icon of Finnish design, Lisa was in charge of the most successful product families in the company's history. During years 2000-2004 Sounio renewed the Origo and Alvar Aalto collections and developed the Primavera product family, collaboration between Marimekko and Iittala.

Commercializing the design knowhow
Sounio has studied in five different universities and business schools. Studies included subjects ranging from economics, design management and art history to communications. Sounio has gained her international experience working on three different continents. Sounio also writes media columns, gives lectures and teaches marketing in the University of Art & Design Helsinki.

Read more: Dopplr blog

TIME-magazine, Jan 25th, 2008: "Let's do lunch in London!"

Guardian UK, January 4th,2008: "Meet the bright young stars of travel"

Dopplr word-of-mouth:
"Dopplr is the iPod of the social networks." Martin Varsavsky, Founder, Fon
"Cheers, Dopplr!" Chris de Wolfe, CEO, MySpace
"Dopplr, Wow!" Tariq Krim, Founder, Netvibes
"I love Dopplr" Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
"Dopplr helps you to get the most out of your travel!" Saul Klein, Acceletor Ventures