Prof. Dr. Abdul Samad (Sami) Kazi, is a Research Team Leader for Smart Cities and Intelligent Buildings at VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., Adjunct Professor of Project Management at the Hanken School of Economics, and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the Asian Institute of Technology. He has previously served as Vice President for Research Strategy & Foresight at VTT where he introduced the iBET (innovative business from emerging technologies) programme and contributed to organisational and strategy renewal. Sami has industrial experience and maintains close links with the industry throughout his research. He has been involved in more than 50 international research and development projects (each project having a budget ranging from 500,000 to 25,000,000 Euros) on strategic roadmapping and implementation action planning, smart cities, construction IT, virtual organisations, ICT for energy efficiency, nature-based solutions, and knowledge management.
Sami has authored/co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including more than ten books in the areas of smart cities, knowledge management, systemic innovation, service innovation, ICT for construction projects and processes, energy efficient buildings, and open building manufacturing,
Sami is keen at identifying the business opportunities that may emerge from technology development. Group facilitation for strategic roadmapping and implementation action planning are a strong passion.
Sami has vast experience as a mentor and coach (both within VTT and external to VTT) on matters of team management, positivity, academic excellence, project management, etc. An inspiring speaker, Sami likes to bring joy to all those around him in a collegial, and constructive manner.
Sami is listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, 7th edition onwards, in the Marquis Who’s Who in World, 10th edition onwards, and in the Marquis Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders (1st edition). Sami is a recipient of the prestigious FIATECH 2012 STAR Award. He is fellow of the Entovation E100 Global Knowledge Leadership network.