Nokia has hired Justin Hotard as its new president and chief executive officer, replacing Pekka Lundmark after four years in the role.

Hotard, who is currently executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Centre and AI group, will take up the position on 1 April.

Prior to taking on the role at Intel, Hotard worked for over eight years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He joined the company in 2019 as corporate senior vice president and president of HPE Japan, and was then promoted to executive vice president, AI business group in 2021, where he was responsible for the high-performance computing and AI business group and Hewlett Packard Labs.

Nokia said Lundmark will remain as an advisor until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition.

“I am honoured by the opportunity to lead Nokia, a global leader in connectivity with a unique heritage in technology,” said Justin Hotard. “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 maximisze its potential for growth and value creation.”

Nokia's chair Sari Baldauf said: "Howard 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.”

The move comes as Nokia signals an increased focus on AI after announcing in June 2024 that it had acquired US IP transport tech and optical equipment company Infinera for around $2.3 billion.

Nokia said that Infinera's advanced optical networking solutions will help to strengthen Nokia's its data centre offerings, which are critical for AI workloads that require high-speed, low-latency data transmission.

It added that the integration of Infinera's technology will allow Nokia to use AI to optimise network performance, improve efficiency and reduce operational costs.

Earlier this month, Nokia and US telecommunications service provider AT&T announced the extension of their voice core relationship as part of a multi-year deal.

AT&T will use the Finnish telecoms giant’s voice core applications through the Nokia Cloud Platform (NCP) to simplify network tasks, improve automation, and minimise manual intervention, as the US operator upgrades the existing Nokia IMS Voice Core to include Voice over New Radio (VoNR).

---