Nokia has announced a series of leadership changes alongside the formation of two new business units designed to sharpen its focus on innovation and growth.

Effective October 1, 2025, the company will establish a Technology and AI Organization and a Corporate Development Organization. The move aims to strengthen Nokia’s technological capabilities, enhancing support for business development and driving more streamlined operations.

According to Nokia, the changes will create more focused organizations to accelerate innovation and improve alignment with its long-term strategy.

“To succeed in the AI supercycle, we need to focus on where we can drive differentiation through our core technologies, strengthen our capabilities in security and AI, and maximize the value of partnerships in our ecosystem. Having a dedicated Technology and AI organization will be an important asset for us and our customers. The new Corporate Development organization will accelerate our strategy evolution and execution, and support our businesses,” said Nokia’s President and CEO, Justin Hotard.

The Technology and AI Organization will integrate Nokia Bell Labs, Technology and AI Leadership, and Group Security. This organization will be led by Pallavi Mahajan, previously Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Data Center and Artificial Intelligence Software at Intel. She has significant experience from networks, software, and AI. Mahajan has held several executive roles, including leading Intel’s innovation at the intersection of networking, mobility, cloud, edge, and AI. At HPE, she pioneered supercomputing programs and led the company’s hybrid cloud strategy. Earlier in her career at Juniper Networks, she spearheaded the development towards self-driving networks. 

Additionally, the Corporate Development Organization will integrate Corporate Development, Strategic Partnerships, Mergers and Acquisitions, incubation activities, and NGP Capital. This organization will be led by Konstanty Owczarek, who has broad experience in corporate development, investment banking, investing, and strategy. He has held executive positions at HPE’s High Performance Compute, AI & Labs business, where he led strategy and business development, including the strategic pivot to generative AI, as well as product life cycle management and other operating management. Before HPE, he was Head of Strategy and Innovation for AIG’s Life and Retirement business. 

On the other hand, Nishant Batra has decided to step down as Chief Strategy and Technology Officer and from the Group Leadership Team at the end of September 2025.   

“I would like to thank Nishant for his contribution to Nokia over the past five years. He led a transformation of Nokia Bell Labs, helped to position Nokia at the forefront of 6G, accelerated our digital and security transformation, and led the execution of our innovation strategy,” Hotard concluded. 

Notably, Nokia will serve as the Innovation Partner at this year’s Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit, themed ‘Tech Intelligence Beyond Mobility.’ The event will spotlight AI and emerging technologies, reflecting Nokia’s renewed focus through its new business units.