Nokia has appointed a top Intel manager to take over as its chief executive as the Finnish telecoms equipment maker struggles to come out of a decade of stagnating share price and revenue.
Justin Hotard, head of the data centre and artificial intelligence group at chipmaker Intel, will replace Pekka Lundmark as Nokia’s chief executive on April 1.
The Financial Times reported in September that the Finnish group was looking for a new chief executive amid widespread frustrations over its inability to boost revenues and increase its share price. This came despite US opposition to China and its equipment manufacturer Huawei turning many western markets for 5G telecoms networks into a competition between Nokia and its Swedish rival Ericsson.
Nokia said Lundmark, a company veteran who returned as chief executive in 2020 after a decade running other businesses, had indicated to the board last year that he wanted to step down when a business restructuring was suitably advanced and a successor had been identified.
Nokia’s chair Sari Baldauf said Hotard had “a strong track record of accelerating growth in technology companies, along with vast expertise in AI and data centre markets, which are critical areas for Nokia’s future growth”.
Hotard, who Nokia said would be based at its headquarters in Finland, said: “Networks are the backbone that power society and businesses, and enable generational technology shifts like the one we are currently experiencing in AI. I am excited to get started and look forward to continuing Nokia’s transformation journey to maximise its potential for growth and value creation.”
Nokia’s revenues are still well below where they were in 2016 after it finalised the takeover of French-American competitor Alcatel-Lucent, while its share price is also lower than when the deal was announced.
Insiders say it has struggled since it sold its iconic but failing mobile phones business to Microsoft in 2013.
“We have a growth problem, pure and simple. Pekka was not able to solve it, so we need somebody else,” a person close to Nokia said last year.
Lundmark said he wanted to change from executive roles to working “as a board professional” after two decades of being chief executive of listed companies. He added that running Nokia had been “a privilege” and that he had positioned the company for growth in “data centres, private wireless and industrial edge, and defence”.
Nokia reported better than expected results for 2024 last month. Sales in the fourth quarter increased 10 per cent but fell 9 per cent for the whole year. It added that it saw signs of the market for network gear improving further in 2025 after sales in that division rose 17 per cent in the fourth quarter.
