Nokia’s CEO swap from Pekka Lundmark to Justin Hotard is another sign of where the telco market is headed.
The change is an example of the market shift from telcos to techcos, as the new head of telco Nokia brings a wealth of technology company experience. Hotard comes from Intel, where he led its Data Center & AI Group for 13 months after spending more than eight years at HPE and almost eight years at NCR.
"He has a strong track record of accelerating growth in technology companies along with vast expertise in AI and data center markets, which are critical areas for Nokia’s future growth,” Sari Baldauf, Chair of Nokia’s Board of Directors, said of Hotard.
The vast expertise in AI and data center are key pieces in the telco to techco transition. AI is obviously a key piece in any IT strategy. Nokia has seen the transformation to techco coming for years, although it drew criticism for re-organizing its services into separate groups instead of integrating them as competitors were doing.
Although industry analysts called the move a surprise, Baldauf said Lundmark told the board nearly a year ago that we wanted to step down as CEO after five years on the job. She said Nokia looked internally and externally for a replacement. She said hiring a CEO from the U.S. was also a factor, although Hotard will move to Finland in his new role.
During the press conference to introduce Hotard Monday, he echoed Baldauf’s emphasis on data center technologies.
“The hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in datacenter today from a technology standpoint of course starts with compute, accelerators and GPUs,” Hotard said. “But the second thing is the network and the connectivity, and further it’s not just the connectivity inside the datacenter but the connectivity across datacenters.”
And of course, AI factors into all technology decisions.
“From mobile phones, to networks, to now leading the advanced connectivity that enables AI and cloud, Nokia has a unique heritage of innovation and reinvention,” Hotard wrote in a LinkedIn post. “I am excited to lead Nokia into its next chapter of innovation, growth, and value creation.”
Hotard’s move represents more change for Intel, which is conducting its own CEO search following Pat Gelsinger’s resignation last December. Intel named Karin Eibschitz Segal as an interim replacement for Hotard.