Nokia redefines management with focus on 5G market News

(Reuters) – The head of Nokia the mobile network, its largest business unit, is leaving the Finnish company as part of the changes designed to position the company for the 5G telecommunication era, Nokia said on Thursday.

Mark Rouan, head of Nokia's mobile networks, will be replaced by Tommy Wito, a Finnish man described by the company as a "radio expert".

French Rouen is the second senior CEO who left Nokia in the past few weeks after the head of his patent business, Ilkka Rahnasto, resigned earlier this month.

Nokia plans to bring together mobile networks and fixed networks in a new unit called Access Networks, which will have a president that will not be named yet.

Mobile networks account for about 30% of Nokia's revenue. In Rouen, she was responsible for the development and sale of new 5G technologies in which operators are just starting to invest.

"By creating a network access organization that includes both fixed and mobile, we can improve our customers' focus, simplify the management structure, and use our full portfolio more efficiently," said CEO Rayeev Shuri.

Uitto is a leading mobile phone sales company, as Nokia acquires its French-American competitor Alcatel-Lucent in 2016 for 15.6 billion euros.

Rouanne joins Nokia from Alcatel-Lucent in 2008

The company's stock price declined by about 1.7% at 0910 GMT.

Last month, Nokia launched a new cost-cutting program and reiterated an ambitious profit forecast, saying the demand for 5G network operators would rise for the rest of the year.

Networking Industry – dominated by Nokia, Ericsson and Chinese Huawei – has been battered by years of delay in demand for existing 4G networks and investors' doubts as to when the benefits of the 5G contract will begin.

(Reporting from the Helsinki Newsroom, edited by Jason Nellie)