Meet Rajeev Suri, India-born next Nokia CEO

Rajeev Suri will become the new chief executive of Finnish telecommunications gear maker Nokia, the company said on Tuesday, confirming what analysts had expected. Suri, 46, until now led Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN), the smaller network equipment unit of Nokia when the company still made mobile phones. Nokia finalised the 5.4 billion euro ($7.5 billion) sale of its struggling mobile phone business to Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Friday. Last year, of the 12.7 billion euro turnover from Nokia's continuing operations, 11.3 billion came from NSN. Navigation unit HERE accounted for 914 million and its patent unit, dubbed advance technologies, 529 million. 46-year-old Suri, born in India, has been widely considered the leading candidate for the CEO post as in recent years he has helped the network division Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) turn profitable with a drastic restructuring plan and by ditching unprofitable businesses. Investors have been looking forward to hearing about Nokia’s next steps since it announced the 5.4 billion euro ($7.5 billion) Microsoft deal in September. The company’s Chennai plant is currently still under investigation in a tax row and is likely to not be a part of the Microsoft deal. In fact, reports say that Nokia may end up using the production facility, one of its largest in the world, for contract manufacturing. Reuters