As executive vice president, Marketing and Business Development, Sulake Corporation and president, North America, Sulake Inc., Teemu Huuhtanen is instrumental in leading the continued development and growth of Finnish-based Sulake’s top property, Habbo, one of the world’s most popular online social networking and virtual world communities for teens.

Huuhtanen is responsible for cultivating relationships with major music, television and motion picture studios, as well as creating unique joint ventures with advertisers throughout the entertainment, retail, fashion and sports industries to generate relevant and interactive brand partnerships. His mission is to bring real-world mainstream entertainment properties and brands that are important to Habbo’s teen user base into the virtual community.

Huuhtanen also oversees global marketing and public relations efforts for Sulake Corporation. He leads the Sulake team, which is responsible for the company’s online and offline marketing, as well as communications and PR.

As an accomplished thought leader for the digital entertainment landscape, over the past four years Huuhtanen has regularly been a speaker at the industry’s premier conferences and business forums. He frequently addresses issues such as in-game brand engagement, working with entertainment properties, social networking and online gaming monetization models, among many other topics.

The Hollywood Reporter recently ranked Huuhtanen on its “Digital Power 50 List” of top innovators who influence the creation and distribution of online content. He was also named one of Digital Media Wire’s “25 Executives to Watch in Digital Entertainment.” American Venture Magazine appointed Huuhtanen to their list of the “Top 40 Under 40” executives to watch in the technology industry for 2007.

Huuhtanen served as a panel judge at the Hollywood Netawards and Hollywood Mobile Awards during the 2008 Hollywood Film Festival. Also, he served as a member of the 2008 Virtual Worlds Expo advisory board.

Since Habbo’s launch in 2000, Huuhtanen has helped grow the teen virtual community to more than 11.5 million unique monthly users worldwide, in 33 countries on six continents. (Google Analytics).

Prior to joining Sulake, Huuhtanen held several senior consumer and B2B sales and business development posts for numerous digital start-up companies worldwide.

Huuhtanen is based and oversees Sulake’s North American headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif.