Nokia Leadership Transition Sees Justin Hotard as New CEO
Nokia has announced a transition in leadership, which sees President and CEO Pekka Lundmark informing the board of directors that he will step down. In response, the board has appointed Justin Hotard as the next President and CEO effective 1 April 2025.
After leading the company since 2020, Pekka Lundmark has decided to step down from his executive roles and move on to the next phase of his career. He will continue as advisor to the new CEO until the end of 2025.
“I’m proud of the work our brilliant team has done in re-establishing our competitiveness and technology leadership and in positioning the company for growth in data centres, private wireless and industrial edge and defense,” Pekka Lundmark shared on LinkedIn.
“It wasn’t an easy decision to step down, but I feel it is the right time for me to move on.”
Nokia finds new success
Under Pekka’s leadership, Nokia was able to expand its service offerings and end 2024 with a strong quarter of 9% growth, the best quarterly margin the company has seen in 10 years.
The outgoing CEO joined the telco at a difficult time, but successfully helped the company re-establish its technology leadership in 5G radio networks and built a strong position in cloud-native core networks.
Additionally, Nokia’s network infrastructure has been able to deliver growth and a significant improvement in profit. Alongside this, the telco has been able to build strong foundations in new growth areas, refreshed the company’s brand and culture and transformed its operating model by rebalancing its portfolio of offerings.
“Justin is a great choice for Nokia and I look forward to working with him on a smooth transition.”
The company has also expanded upon its data centre offerings as it helps to build the essential networks operators require to bolster their services as they look to innovate with AI.
“I see great opportunities for Nokia to build on this foundation and I’m enormously grateful to the talented, committed and hard-working team at Nokia for everything we have achieved together,” Pekka noted on LinkedIn.
Who is Justin Hotard, incoming Nokia CEO?
Justin Hotard joins Nokia with more than 25 years of experience working across global technology companies driving innovation, leadership and revenue growth.
Currently, he is leading the Data Center & AI Group at Intel and has a long background in bolstering AI and high-performance computing (HPC) services.
Prior to this role, he held several leadership roles at large technology companies, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NCR Corporation. Although based in the US, he will now make the transition to be based at Nokia’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland.
“I am delighted to welcome Justin to Nokia. He has 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,” says Sari Baldauf, Chair of Nokia’s Board of Directors.
“In his previous positions, and throughout the selection process, he has demonstrated the strategic insight, vision, leadership and value creation mindset required for a CEO of Nokia.”
Speaking on his appointment, Justin Hotard shared: “I am honored by the opportunity to lead Nokia, a global leader in connectivity with a unique heritage in technology. 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.”
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