New leaders often bring a management refresh but rarely as much upheaval as the latest regime change at Nokia. Including erstwhile CEO Rajeev Suri, seven top executives have now either fallen on their swords or been dismissed from their posts in recent months (the full list is shown below).
For Pekka Lundmark, Nokia s latest boss, the mission is to reduce the pool of decision makers with seats on the global leadership team to just 11, from the 17 Nokia had under Suri. This cull, it is hoped, will streamline and simplify the business. Even in a fairly straightforward mobile access deal, there are five members responsible for that deal and that takes a lot of coordination, Lundmark told analysts last week.
IP/Optical leaders set for advisory role as they pack up their desks
No word yet on current Nokia Software head Bhaskar Gorti
Job losses seem certain as Nokia restructures and decentralizes
Nokia has confirmed that Sandra Motley, currently President of Fixed Networks, will continue to lead the fixed access broadband line of business as part of the Network Infrastructure division that will begin operations on 1 January 2021 under the leadership of Federico Guillén.
That division will comprise IP Networks, Optical Networks, Fixed Networks and Alcatel Submarine Networks.
The current heads of Nokia’s IP/Optical unit, Basil Alwan and Sri Reddy, are heading for the exit door, as TelecomTV revealed last month, but will adopt “advisory roles” for an unspecified period to aid with the introduction of the new division, which is one of four under the new operational model.
Nokia appoints former head of Ericsson Networks into an executive position
Recently, Nokia appointed former Ericsson executive, Nishant Batra, as its chief strategy and technology officer. This appointment is part of CEO Pekka Lundmark’s commitment to re-building Nokia’s management team. Bartra will join Nokia in mid-January next year to succeed Marcus Weldon. Marcus is one of the top executives who are leaving due to Lundmark’s large-scale business restructuring.
The incoming executive has worked for Ericsson for 12 years and held multiple positions before being promoted to the head of the network product field in 2016. He left the Swedish supplier in 2018 and joined the automotive technology company, Veoneer, as the chief technology officer.
Veoneer to appoint Giuseppe Rosso as acting CTO Several senior execs have quit Nokia in management reshuffle (Recasts, adds details)
STOCKHOLM/HELSINKI, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Nokia on Thursday named rival Ericsson’s former executive Nishant Batra as chief strategy and technology officer and member of its group leadership team, effective Jan. 18.
Chief Executive Officer Pekka Lundmark announced a new structure for Nokia in October which from Jan. 1 will have 11 members in the leadership team rather than 17.
Marcus Weldon, Nokia’s previous technology chief, stepped down late last month.
Under its new strategy, the Finnish company will give up on its longstanding end-to-end portfolio approach and operate under four business groups Mobile Networks, IP and Fixed Networks, Cloud and Network Services and Nokia Technologies.
Nokia grabs ex-Ericsson networks head to replace CTO - Mobile World Live 17 DEC 2020
Nokia appointed former Ericsson executive Nishant Batra as its new chief strategy and technology officer, as CEO Pekka Lundmark begins to rebuild his executive team ahead of a string of forthcoming departures.
Batra will join the company in mid-January, taking over CTO responsibilities from Marcus Weldon, one of a number of high-profile executives set to leave Nokia as Lundmark imposes a massive business restructure.
The incoming executive spent 12 years at Ericsson, where he held several roles before rising to become head of product area Networks in 2016. He left the Swedish network vendor in 2018 to join automotive company Veoneer as CTO, a job he still holds.