Teppo Paavola

Webit Speaker, VP Global Business Development, Corporate Development and Developer Relations at PayPal

As Vice President of Global Business Development at PayPal, Mr Paavola leads PayPal’s business development, corporate development and developer relations activities. Mr Paavola has a team in each geographic region of PayPal’s business, engaged in building new partnership opportunities with companies across all industries. 

Prior to working at PayPal, Mr Paavola was with Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications. At Nokia, he had several roles, most recently as Vice President of Nokia Money and before that Vice President, Head of Corporate Business Development and Partnering. 

He is a five-time entrepreneur who founded his first company as a teenager in 1981, including Oplayo (2002-2004), a mobile video company. After working in consulting for the early 90’s and before returning to his entrepreneurial career in the software industry, Mr Paavola spent four years with GE Capital in Mergers & Acquisitions and Business Development positions in London and Stockholm, and most recently as Managing Director of GE Capital Equipment Finance in Finland.

Mr Paavola earned his M.Sc. in Economics from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration in 1991, and MBA in General Management from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.