Oral history interview with Ott Kaukver, August 26, 2017

Ott Kaukver, VP and GM of voice and video at Twilio Inc. and an early employee and former Head Of Engineering at Skype, talks about his family, their experiences during the war and the occupations, his memories from the regaining of independence, and how his inherited passion for maths and physics from his grandmother, and his father’s work as a computer scientist have shaped his life.

Ott also shares his views on how the regained liberty and freedom of movement in combination with the possibilities of the digital revolution have shaped both himself and Estonia, and how younger generations have vastly different outlooks and opportunities than those who have gone before. Ott discusses his personal hopes for Estonia in the future, and the challenges Estonia is facing as a small country with a rapidly evolving society in need of finding a new, positive and more constructive identity instead of the victim mentality caused by the suffering of the past, and the importance of Estonia being an internationally recognized, open and attractive country, with a healthy civil society, a respectful, non-polarizing and open debate, and a meaningful democratic process.