Nokia names India-born Rajeev Suri as CEO

Nokia today appointed India-born Rajeev Suri as its new chief executive to chart the Finnish firm's growth post sale of its mobile-phone business to Microsoft Corp.
Suri, 46, currently is head of Nokia's network equipment unit, Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN), will start start the new role from May 1, the company said in a statement.
He will replace Stephen Elop, who returned to Microsoft with the sale of Nokia's handset unit for about USD 7.2 billion.
In choosing Suri, Nokia is returning focus on wireless-network equipment, a space where it competes with larger rivals like Ericsson and China's Huawei.

Suri, an Indian national who is based in Espoo, Finland, is credited with turning around the loss-making network equipment unit with costs cuts and shedding unprofitable businesses. He has been with 149-year-old Nokia since 1995 and was widely expected to become chief executive. He was NSN head for past four years.
During his almost two decade long stint with Nokia's networks business, Suri has dealt with strategy, mergers and acquisitions, sales and marketing before becoming its head in 2009.

Like the newly appointed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Suri too is graduate engineer with majors in electronics and telecommunications from Manipal Institute of Technology.

He joins the elite club of Indians heading global firms, which includes PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi, Reckitt Benckiser Chief Executive Rakesh Kapoor, President and Chief Executive of MasterCard Ajay Banga and Anshu Jain of Deutsche Bank.
Nokia has three businesses left after sale of its struggling mobile phone-unit sale: the networks division, which made up 71 percent of Nokia's adjusted operating profit in the first quarter, its maps business, and the unit responsible for licensing its patents.
Nokia had previously said it would concentrate growing its networks, navigation and patents units.
Nokia is said to be on look out for alliances like the one it sewed with Juniper Networks Inc to expand its networks business. Last year, it was rumoured to be mulling acquisition of the wireless-equipment unit of France's Alcatel-Lucent.

Once the world's largest smartphone maker with a market share of over 50 per cent, Nokia dropped outside the top five in recent years. It agreed to sell the phone division in September, after racking up losses of more than 5 billion euros over nine quarters. The deal was completed on Friday.
Nokia said Risto Siilasmaa, who was serving as an interim CEO, will return to focusing exclusively on his role as Chairman of Nokia's Board of Directors from May 1.