Nokia Siemens names new finance chief

Mega vendor Nokia Siemens Networks named Luca Maestri as incoming chief financial officer on Thursday, as incumbent CFO Eric Simonsen prepares to retire.

Maestri is to join the Finnish-German firm on October 1, moving from General Motors, where he most recently held the position of CFO for General Motors Europe.

The new finance head will take up the task of further integrating the two companies, as the vendor aims to realise Eur2bn annually in synergy savings by the end of 2008.

Part of this process may also see the stripping out of further non-core assets, such as the Open Transport Network (OTN) unit, which specialises in fibre optic communications and was offloaded in June.

At a recent NSN event, chief executive Simon Beresford-Wylie said that the company is being hard nosed about its portfolio. “If we can’t be number one or a strong number two in a market then we will cast a critical eye on that part of the portfolio,” he said.

In related news, Michael Matthews is to join the company as head of Strategy and Business Development, after serving as chief marketing officer at Amdocs.

Both Maestri and Matthews will report to Beresford-Wylie.