Rajeev Suri

Rajeev Suri (born 10 October 1967) is a Singaporean business executive and was the CEO of Nokia until 31 July 2020.[3][4] Before being appointed Nokia's CEO in May 2014, he was the CEO of Nokia Solutions and Networks from 2009 and held various positions within Nokia since 1995.[5][6] Suri became the CEO of Nokia when the sale of Nokia's phone division to Microsoft Mobile was completed, replacing Stephen Elop. He is an alumnus of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka state of India.[7]

Rajeev Suri
Born	10 October 1967 New Delhi, India
Citizenship	Singaporean[1]
Alma mater	Manipal Institute of Technology (B.E.)[2]
Employer	Nokia Corporation
Spouse(s)	Nina Suri ​ (m. 1992)​
Children	2

Early life

Rajeev Suri was born on 10 October 1967 in New Delhi, India. He grew up in Kuwait. He is a Singaporean citizen and is based in Espoo, Finland. Rajeev Suri has a Bachelor's of Engineering (Electronics and Communications) from Manipal Institute of Technology, which was affiliated to Mangalore University at that time.[1]

Career

In his more than 20 years of international experience, Rajeev has worked in roles comprising strategy and M&A, product marketing, sales, major account leadership, regional and business unit leadership and has lived in Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. He worked for multinational corporations in India and Nigeria before joining Nokia in 1995.[8]

Suri followed Simon Beresford-Wylie as the CEO of NSN in October 2009 after Nokia Networks and Siemens Networks had been merged. He is considered a 'turnaround specialist' in the global tech circles. He is responsible for consolidating the telecom industry by various acquisitions including Motorola, Panasonic , Alcatel Lucent and Siemens.

On 23 November 2011, Suri announced that the company planned to eliminate 17,000 jobs by the end of 2013 to enable NSN to refocus on mobile broadband equipment, the fastest-growing segment of the market. The reductions would slash the company's work force by 23 percent from 74,000. The cuts followed NSN's $1.2 billion purchase of Motorola's mobile network equipment business in July 2010, which added staff; and would help the company trim annual operating expenses by $1.35 billion by the end of 2013.[9]

On 29 April 2014, Suri was appointed as the CEO of Nokia.[4] This was after Nokia had bought back full control of NSN and sold Nokia's phone division to Microsoft Mobile. Suri was the second non-Finnish CEO of Nokia after Stephen Elop.

On 2 March 2020, Nokia announced that Suri will step down as CEO of Nokia.[10][11] He was replaced by Pekka Lundmark on 1 August 2020.[12]

Personal life

Rajeev is based between Singapore/ London.[13][14][15][16] Suri is married to Nina Alag Suri, a serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO at Singaporean startup X0pa.ai (X0PA AI PTE. LTD.)[17] and has two sons Ankit and Anish.

References

1. "Nokia Solutions and Networks - Rajeev Suri Biography". Archived from the original on 1 July 2014.
2. "The Suri code of success". Retrieved 22 October 2019.
3. "Nokia: India-born Rajeev Suri tipped to become next global CEO - Moneycontrol.com". moneycontrol.com.
4. "Meet Rajeev Suri, the new Chief Executive Officer of Nokia". IANS. Biharprabha News. 30 April 2014.
5. "With Microsoft Deal Done, Nokia Names Rajeev Suri CEO, $6.9 Billion in Buybacks, Dividends and Debt Cuts". Recode. 28 April 2014.
6. "Nokia Siemens Networks appoints Rajeev Suri CEO". MarketWatch. 1 September 2015.
7. "Ambassador Shringla Encourages Indian American Youngsters to Study in India, Contribute to Projected $10 Trillion Economy". Retrieved 22 October 2019.
8. "Nokia Group Leadership Team". Nokia. Archived from the original on 1 May 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
9. O'Brien, Kevin J. (23 November 2011). "Nokia Siemens to Cut 23 Percent of Work Force". New York Times. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
10. "Pekka Lundmark appointed President and CEO of Nokia; Rajeev Suri to step down after more than a decade as President and CEO of Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks". Nokia. Nokia Corporation. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
11. Singh, Manish (2 March 2020). "Rajeev Suri to step down as Nokia CEO; Pekka Lundmark to take over". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
12. "Nokia Replacing CEO Suri After Struggling to Make Headway in 5G". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
13. "Rajeev Suri". Retrieved 24 November 2011.
14. "Bloomberg Businessweek - Rajeev Suri". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
15. "Chief Executive Officer". Nokia Siemens Networks. Retrieved 24 November 2011.
16. "Open Innovations - Rajeev Suri". Archived from the original on 5 January 2014.
17. About X0pa.ai