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Edzard Overbeek to take on new role from Tuesday.
Nokia’s former mapping unit Here late last week announced the appointment of Edzard Overbeek as its new CEO.
Overbeek currently serves as a strategic advisor at Cisco, where he manages the company’s services business. Before that, he was president of Cisco’s Asia-Pacific, Japan and Greater China region.
"I am very excited to have been chosen to lead this outstanding company at a very special point in time," Overbeek said, in a statement on Friday. "The Here location cloud is poised to be at the heart of new kinds of services that will genuinely change people’s lives – everything from autonomous cars and smart cities to digitising enterprises."
Nokia agreed to sell Here to a consortium of German car makers comprised of Audi, BMW and Daimler in August 2015. The transaction closed in December, netting the Finnish kit maker €2.55 billion.
Here’s new parents have set their sights on four areas: smarter urban mobility; intelligent public transport services; tools for enterprises and governments; and enabling increasingly automated, and, ultimately, fully autonomous driving.
To realise its vision, the group said it is open to forming strategic partnerships, as well as new investors.
"As a proven leader and with a strong track record, Edzard Overbeek is in our view well suited to drive the business and technology agenda for Here for the benefit of all of its customers across the many industries it serves. We are delighted that he is on board," said a joint statement from Here’s new owners.
Overbeek will take on his new role on Tuesday.
