Nokia on Friday announced that company insider Markus Borchert will head up its European business, following its forthcoming takeover of Alcatel-Lucent.
Borchert’s role will be to over see the merged entity’s customer operations across Europe, Nokia said.
He will report to Ashish Chowdhary, who will be Nokia’s chief customer operations officer once the merger is complete. Chowdhary, currently chief business officer for Nokia Networks, was assigned his new role just over a month ago when Nokia presented its post-merger leadership team.
Borchert, Chowdhary, and the others will take on their new roles subject to the successful closing of the public exchange offer for Alcatel-Lucent. Successful closing refers to Nokia holding more than 50% of the share capital of Alcatel-Lucent on a fully diluted basis.
On Thursday Nokia announced that the French stock market authority has approved the offer. It expects it will be opened on 18 November, closed on 23 December and settled on 7 January 2016, before being reopened later that month.
"We are delighted to announce the appointment of Markus Borchert as designated Head of Europe, Chowdhary said, in a statement. "He brings valuable regional experience and expertise, and would be a great asset to the management team."
Borchert currently serves as senior vice president for the European market at Nokia Networks, a role he took on this year having previously spent three years as president of the Greater China region, and prior to that been head of customer operations in Greater China.
