Marketing professional John Nichols to join the Naava team
John Nichols, the former Global Brand Director of Nokia and current global GM Product Marketing of Microsoft joined Naava's winning team as a Non-executive Marketing Director this spring.
Who are you and where do you come from?
I’m an Englishman who moved to Finland in September 2013 and plan to stay in Finland for the foreseeable future. I live in Helsinki with my wife and two boys. I love the culture and lifestyle here and meeting and networking with some very cool people.
I moved to Finland with Nokia as their Global Brand Director. Since then I’ve been with Microsoft overseeing business planning and global launches of Lumia phones and travelling across the world to the US, Asia and Europe, which has been great.
Marketing was always my first love and experiencing different cultures, understanding the different needs of an increasingly global and digital consumer has allowed me to work across many markets in the world.
Before I joined the technology world back in 2009, I worked extensively in retail in places such as Woolworths, Oddbins and Sainsbury’s. Even though I’ve worked for most of my career as a leader of teams in major companies, I’ve always been entrepreneurial and I love change.
I believe in businesses that make a difference and that stand for something different.
That’s why I find the start-up culture here in Finland so very interesting. I’m passionate about helping businesses expand internationally.
What were your first expressions of Naava?
You know that feeling when you drive from the city to countryside, open the car door and take a deep breath of fresh air; I lived in London for 15 years and I always craved that air. That’s the feeling I got indoors the first time I experienced Naava in Naava's showroom. Even though it was already evening, I felt it was like morning again. It was so energizing.
I spent just an hour or so with Aki, the CEO, in the showroom talking about the company and I honestly felt more mentally agile and even more creative. The experience was extremely powerful. Aki’s vision too is very inspiring.
Naava and its unique product are here to solve a real global problem and to help us live a better, healthier life. It’s rare to be able to work on something that unique.
Finland used to be the land of hi-tech. Could Finland be known in the future as a land of fresh air - for indoors also?
For sure! There are very few countries like Finland. Firstly it is a country of outstanding natural beauty, it’s a real secret. Most of the people I meet here are highly educated, driven, proud and super innovative, that is a rare combination. Finland has certainly a strong potential for global innovations.
The air in Finland is one of the best in the world, I recently skied over 100km across Lapland over 4 days in what is now recognized as the cleanest air in the world. But there are still problems, especially indoors and I truly believe there are bigger needs for Naava in, but also beyond, the Nordics. Indoor air is an issue everywhere.
The faster we can grow and bring this technology to the world - the more we can do good, globally.
As I learned more about the Naava product, the truth about global indoor air quality and this business I realized something pretty big; in fact it’s probably one of the world’s greatest ironies. While nature has given us the amazing air we were always intended to breathe, we have locked ourselves away from it. Instead we breathe a man-made synthetic air 90% of the time every day. It’s great to part of the business that will fix that.
Fresh indoor air is a way to increase well-being and to support cognitive performance. supporting these with your own behavior and action is called biohacking.
How do you biohack yourself?
I have to admit I haven’t been living the most biohacking life before. I have probably spent too much time in planes, taxis, hotels and offices. But recently there has been a change for better.
Firstly, I’ve started to cycle everywhere and I walk outdoors a lot. One thing that occupies a lot of my time is conference calls with the US or other parts of the world. Wherever possible, I’ll dial in from my phone, put on a good pair of headphones and walk for the duration of the call.
I’ve always got Onenote with me for actions and notes, but that has been a brilliant new bio-hacking experience, which makes a massive difference mentally and physically. I recommend it to everyone everywhere.