NOK Nokia Corp

    By Dominic Chopping 
 

Nokia Corp. (NOK) said Tuesday that Risto Siilasmaa is to step down from the Nokia board of directors after serving 12 years as a director and the last eight years as chairman.

The company said it will propose Vice Chair Sari Baldauf to succeed Mr. Siilasmaa, who will step down at Nokia's annual general meeting on April 8.

"While we know that Nokia is facing some short-term challenges as the [5G] technology matures, I am confident that we have the right actions under way to address those issues," Mr. Siilasmaa said.

"Many parts of Nokia are performing well, and we are delivering on our strategy to diversify into enterprise markets and build our software business."

Nokia said its corporate governance and nomination committee conducted the succession planning process for almost a year and, in alignment with the full board, proposes Vice Chair Baldauf as chairwoman, with board member Kari Stadigh proposed as the new vice chair.

Ms. Baldauf joined the Nokia board as a nonexecutive director in 2018 having previously served as executive vice president and general manager of Nokia's networks business from 1998 to 2005 and prior to that, held various executive positions at Nokia in Finland and the United States.

She is also a member of the supervisory board and nomination committee of Daimler AG (DAI.XE) and until 2018 was the chair of Fortum Oyj (FORTUM.HE) and a member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.XE).

"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," Ms. Baldauf said.

"Rajeev and his team are working hard to address both the short-term issues and strengthen Nokia's longer-term value drivers."

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 03, 2019 09:01 ET (14:01 GMT)

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