Nokia Selects Intel Executive as First U.S.-born CEO as the Firm Pivots to AI Boom

Nokia has hired its first American CEO as part of a renewed focus on artificial intelligence aimed at reversing years of low valuations and slow revenue growth.

The Finnish telecommunications company has announced the appointment of Justin Hotard, Intel's executive vice president of data centers and AI, who will start in April. 

"He has a strong track record of accelerating growth in technology companies, as well as extensive knowledge of the AI and data center markets, which are critical to Nokia's future growth," said Sari Baldauf, chair of Nokia's board of directors.

"In his previous positions, and throughout the selection process, he [Hotard] has demonstrated the strategic insight, vision, leadership, and value creation mindset required for a CEO of Nokia."

It reported in September of last year that Nokia was looking for a successor to Lundmark, citing people familiar with the situation, amid growing frustration with slow revenue growth and a stagnant share price.

Baldauf thanked Lundmark for his work and acknowledged that he had "joined at a difficult time in Nokia's history."

In 2020, Lundmark was brought on board to manage Nokia's plans for 5G expansion. Washington's pressure on Chinese rival Huawei helped the group, which now faces competition from fellow Scandinavian company Ericsson on new mobile networks.

Lundmark initiated a leadership change when he informed the board that he would like to consider stepping down from executive positions once the "repositioning of the business was in a more advanced stage," and a successor had been found.

"Under his tenure, Nokia has re-established its technology leadership in 5G radio networks and built a strong position in cloud-native core networks," according to Baldauf.

Nokia has been on a soul-searching journey for the past two decades, hoping to return to its former glory as one of Europe's most valuable companies.

The company is still perhaps best known for its once-dominant mobile phone division. Nokia is now worth a tenth of its peak $260 billion valuation in 2000, following the invention of the iPhone, which saw it lose market share. 

In 2010, Nokia hired its first non-Finnish CEO, Stephen Elop, a Canadian former Microsoft executive, which led to a stronger relationship with the Silicon Valley group and the sale of its mobile phone unit to the company. 

The appointment was viewed as a departure from "the Nokia way," an informal management structure based on Finnish values that was praised during the company's rise but criticized as overly insular when its share price plummeted.

Hotard's appointment, which seeks to recruit AI talent from the leading U.S. market, will strengthen Nokia's latest technological pivot and signal a renewed embrace of U.S. tech capabilities. 

"Networks are the backbone that power society and businesses, and enable generational technology shifts like the one we are currently experiencing in AI," said Hotard. In 2024, Nokia's profits nearly doubled, owing in part to an aggressive cost-cutting program.