Finnish telecommunications equipment maker Nokia today appointed India-born Rajeev Suri as its President and CEO.
Earlier, the 46-year old was leading Nokia Solutions and Networks, the smaller network equipment unit of Nokia before the company sold its handset business to software giant Microsoft in a USD 7.2 billion deal.
He replaces Stephen Elop, who has returned to Microsoft as the executive vice president of its devices group.
Like the newly appointed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Suri is also a Mangalore University graduate. He joins the elite club of Indians heading global firms, which includes PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi, Reckitt Benckiser Chief Executive Rakesh Kapoor, President and Chief Executive of MasterCard Ajay Banga and Anshu Jain of Deutsche Bank.
Both Nadella and Suri are graduates in Electronics and Communications at the Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal University.
Suri was tipped to take over as the CEO when Nokia finalised sale of its mobile handset business to software giant Microsoft.
In February, Microsoft had announced that Nadella will become the third CEO (after founder Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer) of the organisation that sells the world's most popular computer operating system.
"Satya and Suri provide strong testimony to the fact that at MIT the emphasis is on holistic development of students. Students who leave the portals of this engineering institute are quality products. Therefore, it is no coincidence or accident that these two MITians have made it big," MIT Director Vinod V Thomas said.
The overjoyed director quipped that two of the top Fortune 500 companies being led by MIT alumni is indeed a noteworthy achievement.
Simantika Mohapatra, a sixth semester student of E&C said, "Year 2014 will, perhaps, be the most rewarding year with two MITians reaching the zeniths of their career. He has set a goal for all of us at MIT."
Another student at the institute, Shashank Sarbada, said it was "most motivating" to know that the former students of MIT are scaling such heights.
"It will make us strive to match, if not surpass, the footprints of our seniors," he said.
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