Nokia unveils management team
Appointments

Nokia unveils management team

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri has announced the company's management team ahead of the completion of its €15.6 billion takeover of Alcatel-Lucent, with Nokia execs dominating the key positions.

The combined entity of Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia will be split into four business groups – mobile networks, fixed networks, applications and analytics and IP/optical networks. Nokia Technologies will continue to operate as a separate entity.

“Our goal is to position each business group for clear leadership in its particular market and to create a combined portfolio that provides the scope and scale our customers expect, underpinned by a strong focus on innovation, quality and superb execution," said Suri who will be CEO of the newly combined group.

Samih Elhage, executive vice president and chief financial and operating officer at Nokia, was appointed president of mobile networks. Current president of fixed networks Federico Guillen will lead the group’s fixed networks unit.

The group’s application and analytics unit will be headed by Bhaskar Gorti, president of IP platforms at Alcatel-Lucent while Basil Alwan, president of IP routing and transport at Alcatel-Lucent, will be appointed as president of IP/optical networks. Ramzi Haidamus will remain in his role as president of Nokia Technologies.

Other appointments include Nokia Networks mobile broadband EVP Marc Rouanne as the combined group’s chief innovation and operating officer; Nokia Networks VP of corporate strategy Kathrin Buvac as chief strategy officer; Nokia Networks chief business officer Ashish Chowdhary as chief customer operations officer as well as Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila as CFO of the combined company. Marc Rouanne, presently executive vice president at Nokia, will become chief innovation and operating officer. 

"There's more to come as integration planning continues; we can't talk about specific individuals, but the positions named today are not the only senior ones that there will be in the company," he said. 

"Today's announcement is all we can say for the moment, but I'd like to stress here that Nokia will continue to be an innovation powerhouse with Bell Labs and FutureWorks, not to mention the team we have in Nokia Technologies," he added. 

The proposed changes will be rolled out upon closing of the public exchange offer. The €15.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016. 

Separately, Alcatel-Lucent has announced its undersea cable business will be included in its merger with Nokia

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