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From an Internship to a Career

In the late 1990s, Tero Sulonen was a student at Forssa Vocational School looking for an internship. His teacher, Kirsi Vainio, suggested a local electronics company, DA‑Design. Vainio was the wife of Kari Vainio, one of DA‑Group’s founders. Sulonen was already aware of the company, so he decided to apply—and got the position.

“It felt good right away,” he recalls.

In 2001, Sulonen graduated with a basic qualification in information technology and returned to DA—this time as a software designer. At that time, DA‑Group had around a dozen employees working from a single location, with no international reach. Today, Sulonen serves as Chief Information & Security Officer at DA‑Group. The company now employs approximately 140 people and operates across multiple locations in Finland.

From childhood onward, Sulonen has been passionate about coding. His first exposure to computing came through the Commodore 64, after which he became interested in building computers himself. DA‑Group offered work that aligned perfectly with his interests, especially in software development. Over the course of his more than 20‑year career, his responsibilities and ways of working have evolved significantly.

“We get to do some incredibly cool things in exotic business areas that you don’t get to work in at just any company,” Sulonen notes.

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Projects and Leadership

Among the most interesting projects of recent years, Sulonen highlights the cutting‑edge EISCAT 3D radar system being built in northern regions.

“I wouldn’t have believed in the 1990s that technology like this even existed—or that it would originate from Forssa,” Sulonen reflects.

According to Sulonen, continuous self‑development is visible in all areas of work. As his experience grew, so did his interest in leadership. He decided to pursue a master’s degree from a university of applied sciences in technology management. These studies helped him better understand human imperfection, adding a more humanistic perspective alongside his engineering mindset.

DA‑Group has always been strongly engineer‑driven. Sulonen identifies excessive optimism as one of the biggest challenges—a mindset that has sometimes led to schedule delays and budget overruns.

“Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don’t—but overall, things have gone well, considering where we are today,” he says.

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A Strategic Phase

According to Sulonen, DA‑Group is now at a turning point.

“We are a potential challenger, whatever direction we choose to take in the future. We find unfair competitive advantages in the market—and we capture them,” he states.

Sulonen says he cannot predict his own role in the future.

“My role tends to change every couple of years. We’ll see what comes next,” he laughs.

He describes his current position as highly motivating and challenging, although he feels he could still contribute on the technical side as well. For new employees, Sulonen emphasizes the importance of colleagues and openness—never hesitate to ask for help if you don’t know something or aren’t sure.

“There are incredibly great people here and an enormous amount of outstanding expertise. If that knowledge can be shared with new colleagues, that would be absolutely fantastic,” Sulonen concludes.