InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[Mooseo1]

Two Top Nokia Executives to Leave Company
Friday December 3, 7:32 am ET
By Matti Huuhtanen, Associated Press Writer
Two Top Nokia Executives Sari Baldauf, J.T. Bergqvist to Leave Company for Personal Reasons


HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- A pair of top executives in charge of the networks division at mobile phone giant Nokia Corp. are leaving the company for personal reasons, the Finnish company said Friday.
Sari Baldauf, the head of the Nokia's networks division, will leave next month for personal reasons, capping a 20-year tenure with the company, while J.T. Bergqvist, the head of the global business units of Nokia networks, will resign on Jan. 31.


It was the second time in two weeks that Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, said top executives were leaving.

Last week, Matti Alahuhta, who had been part of the company's strategy department and a board member since 1993, said he was leaving to become the chief executive of Kone, the Finnish elevator and escalator maker.

A Nokia spokeswoman said Baldauf, 49, had been planning to leave for some time.

"Sari has been closely involved in the development of the whole mobile infrastructure industry during the past 20 years, practically during her whole career at Nokia," Nokia CEO Jorma Ollila said. "She has, however, taken a very personal decision to make a change in her life and focus on new interests."

Baldauf will be replaced by Australian Simon Beresford-Wylie, 46, a member of the networks management team who heads Nokia's infrastructure business in Asia.

Bergqvist also was leaving for personal reasons, Nokia said, but gave no other details. He will not be directly replaced in a general shakeup of the networks division, a Nokia spokeswoman said.

Nokia, whose mobile phone sales account for 80 percent of total revenue, has recently been losing market share to its chief rivals, South Korea's Samsung Electronics, U.S. manufacturer Motorola Corp. and Germany's Siemens AG.

Also, its networks division this week lost a major bid for a third generation mobile network in the United States from Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless LLC believed to be worth billions of dollars. The contract went to the Japanese-Swedish joint venture Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Lucent Technologies Inc.

Based in Espoo, just outside the Finnish capital, Nokia has sales in 130 countries with some 53,000 employees.

Nokia: http://www.nokia.com