A message to employees from Nokia's new President & CEO

Team, 

It is a privilege to write to you as Nokia’s new President and CEO. 

Since my announcement in February, I have been working closely with Pekka to start the transition. I have met with some of our largest customers and spent time with the Group Leadership Team and members of our Board of Directors. 

In those conversations, it has become clear that you have done a huge amount to put Nokia on a positive footing. This includes investing significantly in innovation; regaining technology competitiveness in 5G; building market-leading solutions for network monetization; taking share in Core; strengthening positions across Fixed, IP and Optical Networks; closing the Infinera acquisition; monetizing Nokia’s intellectual property; and developing early adjacencies in defense, data centers and enterprise.

As a team, you deserve an enormous amount of credit for this work, as it puts Nokia in a strong position to capitalize on the big market opportunity in front of us. 

The internet supercycle fundamentally redefined networks from voice-centric to data-centric. As we begin the AI supercycle, I believe we will see a similarly radical transformation. 

Emerging waves of AI – including deep learning and machine learning, agentic AI and robotics – will require advanced connectivity, with networks designed, deployed and managed differently. This will create opportunities for us and our customers.

AI is already transforming the data center. Networks need to be ultra-high bandwidth and resilient, and will increasingly rely on optics. As a result, the level of investment required for AI data centers is higher than that required for cloud data centers.

We need to clearly focus on the market opportunity and how Nokia can add the maximum value for our customers and shareholders. That is why I will spend my first 100 days learning from our customers, employees, investors and other key stakeholders. My focus is on delivering a clear vision and strategy for the future of Nokia’s journey while ensuring we deliver on our commitments for 2025.

This is an exciting time in our industry and for our company. Let’s seize it.

Justin Hotard
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)