Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG announced the business unit and regional leadership team for their planned Nokia Siemens Networks with the expectation that the proposed merger will be approved and begin operations by Jan. 1, 2007.
“We are making excellent progress in planning for the start of operations at Nokia Siemens Networks,” said Simon Beresford-Wylie, who will assume the position of chief executive officer of the combined company. Beresford-Wylie is currently executive vice president and general manager of Networks at Nokia.
Mika Vehvilainen, who is currently senior VP and GM of Core Networks at Nokia, has been tapped as chief operating officer of the combined operations.
High ranking current Siemens executives include Karl-Christoph Caselitz, who will trade his current position as president of Mobile Networks at Siemens for a chief market operations officer title at Nokia Siemens; and Peter Schonhofer, who will switch from president of Mobile Networks at Siemens to chief financial officer at Nokia Siemens.
The new company has not designated a chief technical officer and has said that it doesn’t necessarily plan to.
The combined company will base its operations in Helsinki, Finland, but said Munich, Germany will serve as “strong” regional headquarters.
