Marko Ahtisaari promoted to Executive Vice President and member of Nokia Leadership Team

The awesome Marko Ahtisaari was promoted today to Executive Vice President of Design and is now a member of the Nokia Leadership Team, reporting directly to Stephen Elop. I’m glad that Nokia are recognizing that design is a lot more integral to their phones (given a lot of the praises of their recent handsets have been down to that).

We’ve been a huge fan of Marko ever since December 2010 when he first gave hints about the innovative new Swipe UI – something that breaks away from the traditional UI design – a NEW PATTERN, and indeed it was a ground breaker both inside the software and outside on the hardware. It was Marko back in June that unveiled the much publicly loved Nokia N9. He also gAVE hints about swipe that we all loved moving across other Nokia platforms, boldly yet correctly saying Nokia had outsimplified the iPhone, so we’re very excited to see where that will all lead. (BTW, Marko also hinted about WP and Nokia back then :p). Pretty much it’s a good time every time we see or hear what Marko’s been up to.

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced that Marko Ahtisaari has been appointed Executive Vice President, Design, and a member of the Nokia Leadership Team, effective February 1, 2012. He reports directly to President and CEO Stephen Elop.

Ahtisaari will continue to lead the Nokia design team, responsible for the industrial design and user experience design of all Nokia products. He has lead the team since 2009 during which time Nokia Design has created critically acclaimed products such as the Nokia N9, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900.

Previously, Ahtisaari was an entrepreneur, as CEO and co-founder of Dopplr, a social network for international travelers, and Head of Brand and Design at Blyk, an advertising-funded mobile network. Prior to this he was Director of Design Strategy at Nokia, and held roles in corporate strategy and venturing. Ahtisaari was also a Fellow of the Faculty and lecturer at the Graduate School of Arts and Science at Columbia University, and a composer and professional musician. He serves on the Board of Directors of Artek and WITNESS.

“One of the key differentiators of Nokia is the elegant and head-turning design of our products,” said Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Nokia. “As we have charted our new course, Marko Ahtisaari has ensured that we elevate the importance of distinctive design, which is evident in the industry’s response to our award-winning Lumia and Asha products. By appointing Marko to the Nokia Leadership Team, we believe his influence will ensure that design leadership becomes part of everything we make and also everything we do.”

http://press.nokia.com/2012/01/26/nokia-appoints-marko-ahtisaari-to-nokia-leadership-team/

Cheers Jiipee and Prasenjit Singh Bist for the tip!

Category: Nokia