Rajiv Suri may become Nokia’s next CEO

After Satya Nadella, it may now be the turn of another Mangalore University graduate Rajiv Suri to head a Fortune 500 company. Rajeev Suri, who currently heads Nokia's telecom equipment business, is tipped to become the global chief executive officer of Nokia Corporation. An announcement elevating Rajeev Suri may be made by March-end or April, when software giant Microsoft concludes the acquisition of Nokia's handset business, Finnish media reports suggest.

Rajeev Suri, the head of Nokia's telecoms network equipment division, is likely to become the Finnish group's next chief executive following the sale of its handset business to Microsoft, a newspaper report said on Friday.

Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, citing sources familiar with board discussions, said Suri was the strongest candidate to succeed Stephen Elop who is due to move to Microsoft once the 5.4 billion euro ($7.5 billion) handset deal is closed. The companies have been expecting to finalise the deal by the end of March, and the newspaper said the board of Nokia would nominate a new chief executive shortly after that. Indian-born Suri has been widely considered the leading candidate for the post as in recent years he has helped the network equipment division, Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN), turn profitable with a drastic restructuring plan and by ditching unprofitable businesses.

However, NSN recently reported its fourth-quarter sale its fourth-quarter sales fell 22 per cent from a year earlier, raising concerns about its growth prospects. NSN, which was originally a joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, accounts for about 90 per cent of Nokia's sales after the handset deal.