Nokia named the executive who will head up its business in India after the completion of its proposed €15.6 billion ($16.7 billion) merger with Alcatel-Lucent.
The appointment of Sandeep Girotra as head of India follows the announcements last week that Markus Borchert will lead the combined entity's business in Europe and Amr Karim El-Leithy has been appointed head of Middle East and Africa (MEA).
Girotra joined Nokia Networks in 1996 and has held a number of different roles in India, heading the region since 2011. Like Borchert and El-Leithy, he will report to chief customer operations officer Ashish Chowdhary.
Nokia also confirmed last week that Alcatel-Lucent CTO Marcus Weldon, who also serves as the president of Bell Labs, will take on the CTO role in the combined company.
Weldon will report to Marc Rouanne, who was named last month as the combined firm's chief innovation and operating officer. Both Rouanne and Chowdhary will, in turn, report to Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri.
Left unclear at this point is the role that Hossein Moiin, Nokia Networks' CTO, will have after the deal closes, which is expected to happen 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.
Nokia unveiled its top leadership team and organisational structure for the merged company on Oct. 7. Nokia has previously stressed that all proposed changes would only be implemented after the successful closing of the public exchange offer, noting that it now holds 50 per cent of the Alcatel-Lucent share capital on a fully diluted basis. The French Stock Market Authority (Autorité des marchés financiers, or AMF) last week approved the public exchange offer for the securities of Alcatel-Lucent.
Nokia also still faces one final barrier to its planned merger with Alcatel-Lucent: approval by its own shareholders. The Finnish vendor has convened an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) for Dec. 2 and has called on shareholders to approve the issue of shares necessary to implement the combination of the two companies, amend the Articles of Association of the company, and approve changes to the make-up of the board.
For more:
- see the Nokia release on India
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