Nokia said on Thursday that the head of its mobile networks business, Marc Rouanne, is leaving as the Finnish company reshapes its organisation for the 5G era.
Tommi Uitto will take over the mobile networks role. Nokia described him as an expert in radio technologies.
The move comes after another senior departure. Ilkka Rahnasto, who led Nokia’s patent business, resigned at the beginning of last month.
Nokia also plans to merge its mobile networks and fixed networks divisions into a new Access Networks unit. The company said the unit will have a president, but no name has been announced.
Mobile networks makes up about 30 percent of Nokia’s revenue. Under Rouanne, it was responsible for developing and selling the company’s 5G technology, a market where operators are only beginning to spend heavily.
Chief executive Rajeev Suri said the restructuring is meant to sharpen customer focus and simplify management. “By creating a single Access Networks organization that includes both fixed and mobile, we can improve our customer focus, simplify our management structure, and more efficiently leverage our full portfolio,” he said in a statement.
Uitto has led mobile networks product sales since Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent in 2016 for 15.6 billion euros. Rouanne joined Nokia from Alcatel-Lucent in 2008.
Nokia’s shares were down about 1.7 percent at 0910 GMT after the announcement.
The company last month launched a new cost-cutting programme and kept its profit outlook unchanged, saying demand for 5G networks would gather pace later in the year.
The wider telecoms equipment market, led by Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei, has faced pressure from weaker demand for 4G networks and uncertainty over when 5G contracts will begin to pay off.
