Allan Martinson

Bio

During his career as an entrepreneur, Allan Martinson has been launching, managing and exiting several companies in the Baltic TMT sector, all of which became leaders in their respective industries. He was the founding CEO of Baltic News Service, which quickly after launch in 1990 became the dominant real-time news organization in the region after outcompeting and bankrupting its state-owned competitors. In 1998 Martinson joined MicroLink, the leading PC maker in the Baltics, and re-launched it as a fast-growing and diversified technology group, backed by four rounds of equity investments. As the CEO of MicroLink, Martinson orchestrated an aggressive M&A campaign to create the leading IT services and data communications group in all three of the Baltic countries. With EUR 40 m in annual sales and more than 500 employees, it strongly dominates the market. MicroLink launched Delfi , the leading Baltic new media enterprise. Delfi was sold in the fourth year of its existence after reaching profitability at EUR 2 m from revenues of EUR 5 m. MicroLink was also the parent of SAF Tehnika – the fastest-growing developer of microwave radiolinks for the global mobile telecom industry. Martinson is or was a member of the supervisory boards of MicroLink, SAF Tehnika, Baltic News Service, Tallinn Stock Exchange, the leading Estonian media company Ekspress Grupp, the IT company Regio, Estonian ICT association and EstonianAcademy of Arts. He was nominated for the Businessman of the Year in 2000 and got the Best Decision Award in 2004 for successfully executing the strategy of MicroLink.