Who’s Justin Hotard, Nokia’s new CEO changing Pekka Lundmark? Particulars

Hotard, who at the moment leads Intel’s Knowledge Heart & AI Group as government vice chairman and normal supervisor, will take over the place on April 1.

Telecom gear producers, dealing with a decline in 5G gear gross sales, are exploring new markets and increasing into rising sectors like synthetic intelligence.

“He has a powerful observe file of accelerating development in expertise firms together with huge experience in AI and information centre markets, that are important areas for Nokia’s future development,” Nokia’s chair Sari Baldauf mentioned in an announcement.

At 0854 GMT (1424 IST), Nokia’s shares rose 1.6 % to 4.7 euros on Helsinki’s inventory change, outpacing the market’s 0.45 % achieve.

JPMorgan analysts known as the CEO change sudden, crediting Lundmark for stabilising the corporate.

“Given {that a} new CEO has already been appointed, it seems to be like this transition was within the works for a while. With the Datacentre and AI background of the brand new CEO, it’s clear which areas Nokia needs to give attention to,” they mentioned in a be aware.

This view was echoed by analysts at Inderes, who see the change as a strategic shift in the direction of Nokia’s Community Infrastructure unit, the place information centres and AI investments are fostering new development alternatives.

Nokia introduced a $2.3 billion deal final yr to accumulate U.S. optical networking agency Infinera, aiming to capitalise on rising AI-driven information centre investments.

Lundmark, who took over as CEO in 2020, will stay as an advisor to Hotard till the yr’s finish, the corporate mentioned.

In September, Nokia declined media experiences saying the corporate was on the lookout for a brand new chief government.

“The planning for this management transition was initiated when Pekka indicated to the Board that he wish to think about transferring on from government roles when the repositioning of the enterprise was in a extra superior stage, and when the precise successor had been recognized,” Baldauf mentioned.

Nokia shares have risen 27.85 % previously yr however stay over 90 % beneath their June 2000 peak. The corporate’s infrastructure division, incorporating AI, specialises in communication methods, together with information centres, servers, and routers.

In the meantime, its cell networks unit focuses on cell communication applied sciences, managing cell towers and advancing 5G providers.

With Reuters inputs