Nokia announces major restructuring

Nokia has announced a restructuring of its mobile unit into two groups, focused on mobile networks and services respectively, in response to the planned departure of the company’s current mobile networks chief.

The company said it will establish two units called Mobile Networks and Global Services respectively.

The company’s current chief innovation and operating officer Mark Rouanne will lead up the mobile networks business group, which will be focused on areas including 4G, 5G, cloud core and small cells.

The Global Services division will meanwhile be led by Igor Leprince, the current executive vice president of global services.

These executives are taking over from current head of mobile networks Samih Elhage, who is leaving the company on April 1 but will stay on as an advisor until May 31. In a statement, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said Elhage has decided to leave now that the integration with Alcatel-Lucent is mostly complete.

“From helping lead the transformation at Nokia Siemens Networks and creating a disciplined operating model that remains a competitive advantage, to being one of the driving forces behind the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent and its fast and successful integration, Samih’s contributions to Nokia have been remarkable,” Suri said.

“He has been a close friend and advisor through times both good and bad, and I fully support his desire for a change.”

As part of the restructuring, the position of chief innovation and operating officer (CIOO) will be dissolved and the duties split. Responsibility for operations will be transferred to the newly-created position of group chief operating officer (COO), innovation will be taken over by Nokia’s chief technology officer (CTO) and incubation will be assumed by Nokia’s chief strategy officer.

The group COO position is going to Monika Maurer, currently the company’s COO for fixed networks, while Marcus Weldon will retain the post of CTO and Kathrin Buvac will remain chief strategy officer.