ABOUT - APELL INTERNATIONAL
We help others succeed.
Biography
Håkan Apell has spent three decades successfully leading and architecting the future of business, technology and society across the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific. His extensive background includes long experience of advanced air mobility and flying cars, helped launching an $800M growth stage venture fund, closing over $550M in cross-border M&A transactions, and shaping the business ecosystem for an innovation city created from zero — Toyota Woven City — featured in Dagens Industri business media.
His work has moved between the executive and the build: advising boards, founders and principals on strategy, governance, accelerated growth and international expansion, while also standing inside the operation, both as the executive and the builder accountable for the result. That combination — counsel and execution — remains the standard he holds Apell International to.
Along the way he has worked with advanced air mobility and flying cars, built innovation programmes and centres, and advanced AI-integrated software-defined mobility. He also contributed to Toyota’s major frontier innovation living laboratory, Woven City, accelerating Toyota Motor Corporation’s transformation towards “Mobility for All”.
He is AI-native, with a deep interest in responsible artificial intelligence and how it can be used to create meaningful impact for people, society and the planet. Integrating it into business operations matters: it is how a business grows while contributing to society in a meaningful and sustainable way.
The recurring lesson across three decades of international experience has been simple: strategy is abundant, trustworthy execution is rare and both depend much on the people in the room.
Helping Others Succeed
Apell International is the expression of that conviction — a family venture and group that holds boutique service lines in advisory, venturing, innovation, positioning and lifestyle — we help others succeed.
“ People · Technology · Society for Life — Now is always the right time to make a difference ”
Selected Track Record
$800M
Venture fund helped launch
$550M+
Cross-border M&A closed
3
Continents of operating tenure
30 yrs
Building businesses and ecosystems
Direct Contact
Featured In
Dagens Industri · 2022
Dagens Industri on Håkan Apell’s work building the business ecosystem for a Japanese innovation city created from zero — a living laboratory for how people, technology and society meet.
The Nashua Telegraph · 2018
The Nashua Telegraph on bringing next-generation aviation to New Hampshire — an early example of pairing emerging technology with the local ecosystem needed to make it real.
PR Newswire · 2018
The corporate rebrand of Terrafugia — a repositioning exercise that translated deep engineering ambition into a clear, credible identity for partners, investors and regulators.
Mynewsdesk / CEVT · 2018
CEVT on the engineering collaboration behind Terrafugia within the Geely group — cross-border teams in Sweden, the US and China working toward a shared mobility ambition.
LinkedIn · 2024
An exclusive visit to the Toyota Woven City Phase 1 construction site at the foothill of Mount Fuji — seeing the mobility test course and the city rise step by step, with kudos to the teams building it.
LinkedIn · 2024
Meetings in Boston and Cambridge with the Toyota Research Institute CAM Office and MIT — on human-centered R&D, academia integration and ecosystem collaborations for Woven by Toyota, including conversations with MIT Professor John Leonard and the MIT Mobility Initiative on sustainable solutions for people, planet and society.
LinkedIn · 2022
A look inside the Woven by Toyota headquarters in Tokyo — the home base for the group's innovation, smart city and technology work.
LinkedIn · 2021
Announcing the launch of Woven Planet — born out of Toyota, on a mission simply going beyond everything: true innovators weaving together people, technology and society. Mobility to Love, Safety to Live.
LinkedIn · 2021
Announcing Woven Planet Holdings’ agreement to acquire Lyft’s Level 5 self-driving division, together with commercial agreements on Lyft system and fleet data — and new offices in Silicon Valley and London to welcome the Level 5 and TRI Automated Driving teams.
LinkedIn · 2023
Invited to give the all-hands speech at the Toyota Research Institute and Toyota Ventures headquarters in Silicon Valley — on building a more vibrant, collaborative and inclusive ecosystem across the Toyota group in service of Mobility for All.
LinkedIn · 2024
A presentation on Toyota Woven City — the living laboratory and its ecosystem model — to the executive management team at Toyota Motor Corporation’s North America headquarters.
LinkedIn · 2024
Speaking on innovation and ecosystem engagement at the InnoLead Impact Silicon Valley and Corporate Accelerator Forum events — sharing the Toyota ecosystem model with corporate innovation leaders from across the Valley and beyond.
LinkedIn · 2022
TechCrunch Mobility Event 2022 in the SF Bay Area hearing tech talks about advanced future mobility and new investment opportunities. Exciting to explore the AeroMobil 4.0 Flying Car on outdoor display.
LinkedIn · 2025
A reflection on pioneering the Terrafugia Transition — a “Driven to Fly” roadable aircraft that met both aviation and automotive requirements and earned an FAA Special Light-Sport airworthiness certificate — alongside the eVTOL work toward a seamless multimodal mobility system, and the Live Love Learn values embedded in the Terrafugia rebrand.
LinkedIn · 2025
On building a vibrant business and innovation campus as a global gateway for creativity, engagement and collaboration — the activities and components that bring people and communities together across borders, in the spirit of inclusive togetherness.
LinkedIn · 2024
A note of gratitude closing four years with Toyota — from Toyota Research Institute Advanced Development (2018) to Woven Planet Group (2021), three major U.S. M&A deals, and Woven by Toyota (2023) — including two years laying the foundation for Toyota Woven City's global business and innovation ecosystem across the Toyota Group and beyond.
Featured Film
In His Words
Apell International is deliberately built as a house rather than a firm. Ownership, advisory, venturing, innovation, positioning and lifestyle sit under one roof so that decisions are made with a long horizon and with people we intend to know for decades — not for a single transaction cycle.
We accept mandates where our presence genuinely changes the outcome: a board facing succession, a founder entering a new region, a venture that needs an operator rather than an observer. If we are not the right house for the task, we say so early and point elsewhere.
Technology is an instrument, not an objective. What endures is the quality of the people involved and the value left behind for society. Every business line we run is measured against that: does it help others grow well, commercially and as human beings.
Small teams, principals in the room, written thinking before slideware, and a bias for the unglamorous work of execution. We prefer few clients, deep relationships and a standard of care we would want applied to our own values.
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