Nokia today announced the appointment of former Ericsson executive Nishant Batra as chief strategy and technology officer.
Nishant Batra will also be a member of the Nokia Group Leadership team, effective from January 18, 2021, Nokia said.
Nokia chief executive officer Pekka Lundmark announced a new structure for Nokia in October which from Jan. 1 will have 11 members in the leadership team rather than 17.
Under its new strategy, the Finnish company will give up on its longstanding end-to-end portfolio approach and operate under four business groups Mobile Networks, IP and Fixed Networks, Cloud and Network Services and Nokia Technologies.
Marcus Weldon, Nokia’s previous technology chief, stepped down late last month.
Other senior executives who have quit Nokia since the new structure was announced include chief marketing officer Barry French and president of global services and member of the group’s leadership team Sanjay Goel.
Nishant Batra joins Nokia from Veoneer in Sweden, a leader in automotive technology, where he was executive vice president and chief technology officer.
Prior this role he held several positions at Ericsson over twelve years in Sweden, India and the US, most recently as head of Product Area Networks. He has extensive experience with complex systems based on cutting-edge silicon technology and both embedded as well as cloud-based software.
Nishant Batra holds an MBA from INSEAD, a master’s degree in telecommunications and a master’s degree in computer science from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and a bachelor’s degree in computer applications from Devi Ahilya University in India.
Nishant Batra will be based initially in Espoo, Finland and he will move to the US. He will report to Nokia’s president and chief executive officer Pekka Lundmark.
