What just happened? Nokia is set for a leadership transition and has appointed Justin Hotard as its new chief executive officer effective April 1, 2025. Hotard, who currently heads Intel's data center and artificial intelligence group, will take over from outgoing CEO Pekka Lundmark. Lundmark is set to depart the company on March 31, though he will remain an advisor to Hotard through the end of this year. The leadership transition comes as Nokia looks to double down on emerging opportunities in AI, data centers, private wireless networks, and edge computing areas where Hotard's expertise could prove invaluable."Networks are the backbone that power society and businesses, and enable generational technology shifts like the one we are currently experiencing in AI," Hotard said in a statement. "I am excited to get started and look forward to continuing Nokia's transformation journey to maximize its potential for growth and value creation."Lundmark's tenure has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. He rejoined Nokia in 2020 after previously working there from 1990-2000, returning to right the ship after the company's acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent struggled to bear fruit. However, the company's share price and revenue have stagnated in recent years.In 2023, Nokia announced major cost cuts, including plans to slash 14,000 jobs or 16% of its global workforce. Signs of a turnaround have emerged, with Q4 2024 net sales up 9% year-over-year, though full-year revenue dipped 9%.Still, Lundmark departs on an upbeat note. "I am proud of the work our brilliant team has done in re-establishing our technology leadership and competitiveness and positioning the company for growth in data centers, private wireless and industrial Edge, and defense," he said. // Related StoriesHotard brings over 25 years of relevant experience to his new role. Prior to Intel, he spent over eight years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in senior leadership roles focused on high-performance computing, AI, and labs. He also held executive positions at NCR Corporation and Symbol Technologies.As for his Intel tenure, Hotard joined the firm early last year, which was a period marred by setbacks for the company. Though his tenure yielded a mixed scorecard, many of the initiatives both good and bad predated his arrival. On the upside, Intel successfully debuted its next-gen Xeon 6 Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest server CPUs under Hotard's watch. However, the company fell short of its sales targets for the Gaudi 3 AI processor family.Hotard's background aligns well with Nokia's increasing prioritization of AI, data centers, and edge opportunities. Just last year, the company launched an event-driven data center automation platform and struck major data center infrastructure partnerships with Microsoft Azure and Kyndryl.