Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa to step down in April

Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa, who served as the company's interim CEO from 2013 to 2014, is set to step down in April 2020 and is likely to be replaced by Sari Baldauf.

Baldauf, who served as the Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Nokia's Networks business group from 1998 to 2005, could be the new Chair of the Nokia Board, subject to her re-election to the Board by the Annual General Meeting on April 8, 2020, the company said on Tuesday.

Siilasmaa joined the Nokia Board in 2008 and was appointed as the Board Chair in 2012.

"During my time as the Board Chair, we repositioned Nokia as a world-leading network technology business, with a strong basis for the future," Siilasmaa said in a statement.

It included some fundamental strategic steps, including sale of the Nokia mobile devices business to Microsoft, taking full ownership of the NSN telecom infrastructure business, and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, it said.

"This transformational journey has not been easy, and I would like to thank everyone at Nokia for their determination and dedication," he said. "We are in the midst of another transition, with the historic move to 5G," said Siilasmaa.

"While we know that Nokia is facing some short-term challenges as the technology matures, I am confident that we have the right actions underway to address those issues. Many parts of Nokia are performing well, and we are delivering on our strategy to diversify into enterprise markets and build our software business,"  Siilasmaa said.

Risto had been an excellent partner during a time of significant change at Nokia, said Rajeev Suri, President and CEO of Nokia.