Rolf Werner has joined Nokia as senior vice president of its European region.
Werner joins Nokia from Cognizant Technology Solutions, where he was the CEO of Germany, with responsibility for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Under his leadership, the company delivered double-digit growth for the region, including the acquisition of ESG Mobility.
Nokia apparently believes he can bring similar good fortunes to its coffers.
Heading Nokia’s Europe Region, Werner will be charged with helping to drive Nokia’s market share and deepen Nokia’s relationships with key European customers, as well as support growth ambitions in new market segments.
Werner reports directly to Chief Customer Experience Officer Ricky Corker, who previously led Nokia’s North American business for many years before transitioning to oversee the North and Latin American markets until 2021.
“Having a broad experience across the industry, gained in software, service providers and in many other areas, means that Rolf will be able to help guide Nokia’s European organization through the next stage of our corporate development,” Corker said in a statement.
For his part, Werner said it’s an excellent time to be joining Nokia. “It is clear that Nokia has an excellent opportunity to seize the market as one of very few companies that can offer solutions to its customers across the full range of technologies available in the industry,” he stated.
The job of Werner’s team will be to guide service providers and enterprises as they deploy 5G, fiber broadband and private wireless, according to Nokia.
Before Cognizant, Werner held senior positions at Fujitsu, Global Logic and T-Systems, where he led the turnaround of T-Systems’ French organization.
It’s unclear where this leaves Jan van Tetering, whose LinkedIn profile as of this morning still lists him as SVP of Europe and CEO of Nokia Bell, as Light Reading pointed out. Fierce reached out to Nokia and will provide an update with any new information on that front.
Update: Nokia confirmed that Werner is indeed replacing van Tetering. "Jan and Rolf will work together to ensure a seamless transition. After this, Jan will remain at Nokia to focus on a new role," a spokesman told Fierce.