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Microsoft Business Division Head Stephen Elop Departs for Nokia CEO Role

by Jason Gumpert
Editor, MSDynamicsWorld.com

Nokia has announced that it has hired Microsoft Business Division head Stephen Elop as its new President and CEO.  Elop will begin his new role on September 21, according to Nokia. 

Elop reported directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his Business Division covered Office, as well as Microsoft Dynamics and SharePoint.  He had been with Microsoft since 2008.

In an announcement to Microsoft staff, Ballmer stated that Elop's direct reports, including Microsoft Dynamics head Kirill Tatarinov, will report directly to the CEO for an interim period.  In his email to Microsoft staff, Ballmer stated, "[t]he MBD business continues to grow and thrive, with 15 percent growth in the last quarter. It has been good to see the great response to Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, the growth of our Dynamics business and the way we have been successful in extending all our MBD products and services to the cloud. I appreciate the way that Stephen has been a good steward of the brand and business in his time here, and look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role at Nokia."

Nokia Chairman Jorma Ollila made the following statement:

"The time is right to accelerate the company's renewal; to bring in new executive leadership with different skills and strengths in order to drive company success. The Nokia Board believes that Stephen has the right industry experience and leadership skills to realize the full potential of Nokia. His strong software background and proven record in change management will be valuable assets as we press harder to complete the transformation of the company. We believe that Stephen will be able to drive both innovation and efficient execution of the company strategy ...

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About Jason Gumpert

As the editor of MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason oversees all editorial content on the site and at our events, as well as providing site management and strategy. He can be reached at jgumpert@msdynamicsworld.com.

Prior to co-founding MSDynamicsWorld.com, Jason was a Principal Software Consultant at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), where he implemented solutions, trained customers, managed software development, and spent some time in the pre-sales engineering organization. He has also held consulting positions at CSC Consulting and Monitor Group.

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