Nokia has revealed details of the planned top management team that will run the company once it has completed its €15.6 billion (US$17.6 billion) takeover of Alcatel-Lucent, with the list of senior appointments skewed heavily towards executives at the Finnish vendor. (See Nokia Makes €15.6B Bid for Alcatel-Lucent.)
Of the 13 executives that have now been named to leadership positions (including the CEO), just three are currently at Alcatel-Lucent and the status of several highly regarded AlcaLu individuals remains unclear.
Indeed, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) appears to have preferred Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) executives only in those cases where it had no clear existing alternative.
The Finnish vendor's chief objective in acquiring Alcatel-Lucent was to beef up its fixed networks and New IP capabilities, and the three Alcatel-Lucent executives that will hold on to senior roles are all experts in these areas. (See AlcaLu Deal Makes Us 'More Complete' Than Ericsson, Says Nokia CTO, Nokia & Alcatel-Lucent: What's Going On? and Nokia + AlcaLu: What the Analysts Say.)
The three 'chosen ones' are:
The biggest of Nokia's four new business groups, mobile networks, will be led by Samih Elhage, currently Nokia's executive vice president and chief financial and operating officer. That group will include Nokia's huge Global Services business (comprising professional and managed services), which currently accounts for about half of Nokia's revenues, as well as Alcatel-Lucent's managed services activities, making it by far the largest of the four units in revenue terms.
(For more details on the focus of each business group, see the full Nokia announcement: Nokia Unveils Combined Nokia/AlcaLu Management Team.)
This obviously raises questions about the future of Dave Geary, Alcatel-Lucent's existing wireless president, as well as Nokia's own Igor Leprince, who currently manages the Global Services operation.
All four business group leaders will report directly to Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri, who will remain in the driving seat following the takeover.
Former Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes has already joined French cable group Altice as chief operating officer with particular responsibility for international activities. (See Ex-AlcaLu Boss Tasked With Bolstering Altice.)
But a number of other senior executives at Alcatel-Lucent may now be on the lookout for opportunities elsewhere, having missed out on a role in the new-look Nokia's top management team.
Timo Ihamuotila will remain Nokia's chief financial officer and Marc Rouanne -- currently Nokia's executive vice president of mobile broadband -- will become chief innovation and operating officer (CIOO).
The naming of Rouanne to the CIOO role and the lack of any announcement about a separate chief technology officer (CTO) could also have ramifications for Marcus Weldon -- who is currently both Alcatel-Lucent's CTO and the president of the French vendor's Bell Labs R&D outfit -- and Hossein Moiin, Nokia's existing CTO.
Nokia declined to comment when asked by Light Reading if Moiin would remain CTO and whether there would be a role at the new company for Weldon, saying that it was not commenting on any roles other than those announced today.
But that doesn't rule out roles for those not named today: A spokesperson at Alcatel-Lucent noted that today's announcement concerns only the top level of management reporting directly to the CEO. "The layers will be appointed and announced one by one, so we will see who is where as the operating model is fleshed out," said the spokesperson.
Other possible casualties of the merger include Philippe Keryer, Alcatel-Lucent's chief strategy and innovation officer, and Tim Krause, its chief marketing officer.
Nokia has indicated that Kathrin Buvac will assume the role of chief strategy officer, having previously been Nokia's vice president of corporate strategy, and that Barry French will remain as Nokia's chief marketing officer.
Nokia Technologies, which is focused on licensing and "the incubation of new technologies," will operate as a separate business to Nokia Networks and will have its own product development and operations team. Ramzi Haidamus will continue as President of Nokia Technologies, reporting to Suri.
The other C-level appointments include: Ashish Chowdhary, who will move from the position of chief business officer to that of chief customer operations officer; Hans-Jürgen Bill as chief human resources officer (he is currently Nokia's executive vice president of human resources); and Maria Varsellona, who is to remain as chief legal officer.
— Iain Morris, 
, News Editor, Light Reading
This, though, is an acquisition, so Nokia calls the shots basically - - hence, most of the top team are Nokia folks.
I wold expect to see some more ALU names in the next tier down but also expect to see some of them pop up elsewhere.
In my view, Nokia would do well to hang on to the experience and energy that Marcus Weldon brings to any team. If he doesn't get a role I'm sure he will soon turn up at one of Nok/ALU's rivals.