Nokia announced Hotard’s appointment last month, revealing departing CEO Pekka Lundmark was moving on to “the next phase of his career”.
At the time, Lundmark said: “Leading Nokia has been a privilege.
“This is the right time for me to move on. I have led listed companies for more than two decades and although I do not plan to stop working, I want to move on from executive roles to work in a different capacity, such as a board professional.”
Lundmark’s departure followed several reports speculating that Nokia was ending Lundmark’s five-year reign at the Finnish firm, which it denied.
Meanwhile, Hotard expressed excitement about pushing the technology giant’s transformation efforts.
Amid high expectations for Hotard to succeed where Lundmark faced challenges, he acknowledged in his introductory message that there is a “great opportunity for us to enhance humanity while we serve our customers and ultimately deliver compelling returns for our shareholders.”
He said: “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 maximise its potential for growth and value creation.”
However, according to Paolo Pescatore,TMT analyst at PP Foresight, Hotard’s appointment offers a sense of direction the company wants to pursue.
He tells Capacity: “Having headed up Intel’s AI and data centre, this represents a key area of future growth for the Finnish vendor.
“He will need to execute on major growth targets which reinforces the importance of its diversification strategy, including data centres, defence, private wireless and industrial edge. This builds upon the core engines of growth around trusted connectivity in the areas of cloudification, automation, interoperability and monetisation.”
Pescatore adds the new CEO’s first major challenge will be to navigate the ongoing geo-political tensions as well as Trump’s Administration implementation of tariffs.
“For sure, a trade war is in no one's interests, but uncertainty remains. He will need to work closely with European regulators as well as further diversify its own channels and partners,” he explains.
“It will be important to consider various scenarios given that its outgoing CEO stated that Nokia is proud of the fact that it is “headquartered in Europe” but “the US is our second home.”
According to senior director, Maxim Chekanovskiy, of US based-consulting business, Alvarez & Marsal, although it is another CEO succession, there “are several other factors at play”.
“To achieve success, it is crucial to gain a comprehensive understanding of customers’ needs, the company’s capabilities and portfolio, and the gaps that exist," he says.
“This knowledge will provide a clear vision for the company’s future that resonates with employees and clients, ensuring their support. Subsequently, a well-defined transformation program can be developed and implemented to support this vision.”
Chekanovskiy adds that Hotard has a strong track record of driving growth and transformation in both global and regional markets, allowing him to succeed in his new role.
This comes as Sari Baldauf, chair of Nokia's board of directors, also highlighted Hotard’s “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.”
Hotard kick-started his career as a senior systems engineer at Motorola before moving into business development roles.
In 2007, he joined NCR Corporation, where he held leadership roles in mergers and acquisitions, entertainment, cloud platforms and corporate development. He later served as vice president and general manager of NCR Entertainment, leading NCR's global small business cloud platform.
He then moved to HPE, holding senior executive roles in strategy, volume business and leadership of HPE Japan and China.
From 2021 to 2024, he was executive vice president and general manager of high-performance computing, AI & Labs. Finally, in 2024, he joined Intel as executive vice president and general manager of the data centre and AI group.
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