CFO Simonson put in charge of feature phones and strategic sourcing
The day after announcing its first loss in more than a decade, Nokia has swung the axe at its mobile phones division, and put its chief bean counter in charge. Mobile Phones is one of two new entities within the Devices unit that came into operation on October 1, 2009, the other being Smartphones.
CFO Rick Simonson has moved over to head up the phones division, and will also be in charge of all sourcing for the while Devices unit. The significance of this is that in its results briefing, Nokia blamed a lack of supply in the components sector for impacting on its own production of smartphones. Perhaps it feels having Simonson's weight behind that process, with his background as CFO, will make a difference. Previously, Executive VP of the Devices division, Kai Öistämö, has been responsible for sourcing.
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, its chief executive, said "We would have sold more devices and smartphones in the third quarter without the capacity constraints. The constraints did in fact hit the smartphone part of the business more than the rest of the devices."
Timo Ihamuotila, currently global head of sales, will transfer to the role of CFO as of November 1, 2009. Jo Harlow was appointed head of the Smartphones division earlier this year.