The most eye-catching managerial shake-up as the New Year loomed was at Nokia, where Dr JT Bergqvist, who has been in charge of the company’s global networks business, and a member of the executive board since 2002 walked out for “personal reasons”, a terse company statement confirmed.
Bergqvist had only recently extolled the virtues Nokia’s networks business at the annual Nokia Conference in Monaco, but commentators have suggested that he was piqued by missing out on the top job following the departure of executive vp Sari Baldauf.
Baldauf is a Nokia stalwart who has been with the networks division since the early days of GSM and had “long planned” to retire around this time, a statement said.
Baldauf’s replacement will be the Australian Simon Beresford-Wylie. Beresford-Wylie, who has worked for Nokia since 1998 will start in the role in February 2005. He is currently in charge of Nokia’s infrastructure business in Asia and is a member of Networks’ management team. In his new position, he will be based in Finland.Â
“I have been aware of Sari Baldauf’s plans for quite a long time, and the changes in Networks’ management are a well-planned part of Nokia’s transformation process,” said Jorma Ollila, Chairman and CEO of Nokia.