Nokia confirms Alcatel-Lucent CTO Weldon will land CTO gig following merger

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) confirmed that Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) CTO Marcus Weldon, who also serves as the president of Bell Labs, will take on the CTO role in the combined company once Nokia completes its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent.

Weldon

"We can confirm Marcus Weldon as CTO of the innovation and operations business unit, reporting to Marc Rouanne, following the close of the Alcatel-Lucent deal," Nokia spokeswoman Carol Dematteo told FierceWireless. She said other appointments "will be announced in due course."

The news about Weldon was first reported by Light Reading.

Rouanne, currently EVP of mobile broadband at Nokia Networks, was named last month as the combined firm's chief innovation and operating officer, reporting directly to Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri, who will lead the combined firm. Rouanne will be in charge of using Bell Labs and Nokia's FutureWorks outfit to shape the company's vision across its new business groups. Rouanne will also manage quality, information security, manufacturing and supply chain operations, as well as units like real estate, data centers and laboratories.

Left unclear at this point is the role that Hossein Moiin, Nokia Networks' CTO, will have after the deal closes, which is expected in the first quarter of next year. A source close to Nokia who requested anonymity to speak freely about personnel matters said that Moiin will have a role in the new firm but declined to say what it would be.

Weldon was named as the 13th president of Bell Labs in November 2013, and the move showed Alcatel-Lucent's intent to leverage R&D to propel its Shift Plan restructuring strategy and align research activities with its roadmap for commercial products.

Weldon, who has been Alcatel-Lucent's CTO since 2009, is widely credited with re-energizing the role of R&D within Alcatel-Lucent. Bell Labs recently authored a book called The Future X Network written by Weldon and his team. The book outlined how Bell Labs sees the next technological era unfolding and the breakthroughs needed at both the architectural and systems levels, in addition to market realignments. The book, which is designed to be a conversation starter, explained that the dawn of a new era in networking is upon us and it will be shaped by the digitization and connection of everything and everyone with the goal of optimizing human decision-making and automating everyday routines and processes.

For more:
- see this Light Reading article

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