Ashish Chowdhary has been appointed to lead the services business at equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks, when the incumbent, Rajeev Suri, becomes chief executive officer of the firm.

Chowdhary will take the role from October 1 and will be based in Noida, near New Delhi, India.

Last week, Simon Beresford-Wylie, head honcho at NSN, announced plans to  step down at the end of September, to be replaced by Suri.

Beresford-Wylie is credited with being one of the driving forces behind the creation of Nokia Siemens Networks and assumed the position of CEO of the company when it commenced operations on April 1, 2007.

He will support Suri during a transition period through November 1, 2009 before leaving the company. Beresford-Wylie will also leave the Nokia group executive board on September 30.  He has not yet revealed whether he has taken another job in the industry.