Nokia announced that its Board Chair, Risto Siilasmaa, has informed the Board that he will not stand for re-election to the Board of Directors at the Nokia Annual General Meeting in 2020. Siilasmaa joined the Nokia Board in 2008 and was appointed as Board Chair in 2012. He also served as interim CEO of Nokia from 2013 to 2014.
“During my time as Board Chair, we have repositioned Nokia as a world-leading network technology business, with a strong basis for the future,” said Risto Siilasmaa. “This has included some fundamental strategic steps, including the sale of the Nokia mobile devices business to Microsoft, taking full ownership of the NSN telecom infrastructure business, and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent. This transformational journey has not been easy, and I would like to thank everyone at Nokia for their determination and dedication.”
“We are in the midst of another transition now, with the historic move to 5G,” continued Siilasmaa. “While we know that Nokia is facing some short-term challenges as the technology matures, I am confident that we have the right actions underway to address those issues. Many parts of Nokia are performing well, and we are delivering on our strategy to diversify into enterprise markets and build our software business.”
The Corporate Governance & Nomination Committee has conducted a rigorous succession planning process for almost a year and, in alignment with the full Board, proposes Board Vice Chair Sari Baldauf as the new Chair and Board member Kari Stadigh as the Vice Chair as of the Annual General Meeting 2020, subject to their re-election to the Board.
Baldauf joined the Nokia Board as a non-executive director in 2018. In addition, she is a member of the Supervisory Board & Nomination Committee of Daimler AG and the Board of Directors of Aalto University. Baldauf was the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Nokia’s Networks business group from 1998 to 2005 and, prior to that, held various executive positions at Nokia in Finland and the United States. Until 2018, Baldauf was the Board Chair of Fortum Corporation and a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom.
“I am honored by the nomination to serve Nokia and its shareholders as the Chair of the Board of Directors,” said Sari Baldauf, Nokia Board Vice Chair. “Risto and I have worked closely together since I was named Vice Chair in May. I see a clear opportunity to help create long-term shareholder value and look forward to continuing to work closely with the Board and with Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri. Rajeev and his team are working hard to address both the short-term issues and strengthen Nokia’s longer-term value drivers.”
“Risto has been an excellent partner during a time of significant change at Nokia,” said Rajeev Suri, the President and CEO of Nokia. “On behalf of all the employees of Nokia, I thank him for all his hard work and support. I look forward to working with Sari as the new Chair of the Nokia Board.”
Nokia plans to publish the notice of the AGM 2020 and the complete proposals by the Board after the publication of its fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 results. Nokia’s AGM is planned to be held on April 8, 2020.