The Nokia Kristen Pressner appointment marks a strategic move by the company to strengthen its people and culture agenda amid its AI-driven transformation. Effective 1 May 2026, Pressner will join Nokia Corporation as Chief People Officer and a member of its Group Leadership Team.
In a pivotal leadership move underscoring its focus on people-driven transformation, Nokia Corporation has appointed Kristen Pressner as its new Chief People Officer (CPO), effective May 1, 2026. Pressner will join Nokia’s Group Leadership Team and report directly to President and CEO Justin Hotard, as the company strengthens its global workforce strategy to support its shift toward AI-powered networks, cloud-based services, and next-generation connectivity.
The appointment of Kristen Pressner comes at a critical moment in Nokia’s transformation journey, as the company continues to evolve its business model and culture to thrive in an increasingly digital, intelligent, and connected world. Her extensive experience in human resources, leadership development, and organizational transformation positions her as a key catalyst for Nokia’s next phase of growth.
A Leader with a Global HR Pedigree
Kristen Pressner brings over three decades of international HR and leadership experience across major global organizations and industries. Before joining Nokia, she served as Global Head of People & Culture at Roche Holding AG’s Diagnostics division, where she led large-scale transformations to align leadership models, strengthen inclusion, and embed innovation at the heart of Roche’s culture.
During her tenure at Roche, Pressner played a pivotal role in reshaping workforce strategy amid a fast-evolving healthcare and diagnostics environment. She helped the organization adopt a more agile, digital-first people approach, ensuring that its human capital strategy supported innovation, customer-centricity, and scientific advancement.
Earlier in her career, Pressner held several HR leadership roles at Texas Instruments, where she focused on organizational capability building, leadership pipeline development, and change management across multiple international markets. Her global experience — spanning Europe, the Americas, and Asia — has given her a deep understanding of how to lead diverse teams through periods of transformation.
Her career reflects a consistent commitment to fostering cultures of trust, empowerment, and performance, and she is widely recognized for her advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in corporate leadership.
Strategic Timing: People at the Core of Nokia’s AI Transformation
The timing of Pressner’s appointment aligns directly with Nokia’s renewed focus on organizational agility and innovation, as the company positions itself as a leader in AI-driven networking solutions and digital transformation services. Nokia’s CEO Justin Hotard has emphasized that “people and culture are central to the company’s success in an AI-powered future.”
Over the past few years, Nokia has embarked on a sweeping transformation program aimed at streamlining its business units, accelerating product innovation, and deepening collaboration across its global teams. As the company advances its cloud, network, and enterprise technology portfolio, it recognizes that its workforce must evolve alongside its technology.
Appointing an accomplished HR leader like Kristen Pressner represents Nokia’s intention to align its people strategy with its business ambitions, ensuring that talent, leadership, and culture serve as the foundation of its innovation journey. Her mandate is not simply to lead HR — but to redefine how Nokia’s people function contributes to competitive advantage.
Responsibilities and Strategic Priorities
As Chief People Officer, Pressner will lead Nokia’s global HR organization, overseeing all aspects of human capital management, leadership development, and workforce transformation. Her role will focus on building a future-ready workforce that can adapt to the demands of digitalization, automation, and artificial intelligence.
1. Shaping a Unified, Innovation-Driven Culture
Pressner’s first priority will be to cultivate a unified culture that emphasizes innovation, accountability, and agility. Nokia operates in over 130 countries, with a workforce that spans multiple functions and cultural backgrounds. Ensuring cohesion and shared purpose across this global network will be key to driving consistent performance.
She is expected to champion initiatives that foster collaboration, inclusion, and adaptability, empowering employees to think creatively and take ownership of innovation in their respective domains.
2. Strengthening Leadership and Talent Pipelines
As the tech landscape evolves rapidly, leadership capability development remains a top priority. Pressner will work on building a robust talent pipeline, ensuring that Nokia has the right leaders in place to steer teams through ongoing technological disruption.
This will involve nurturing high-potential employees, promoting cross-functional mobility, and embedding leadership behaviors that align with Nokia’s purpose and values.
3. Enabling Workforce Readiness for an AI-Enabled Future
With Nokia increasingly embedding AI into its operations and customer solutions, Pressner will be responsible for ensuring workforce readiness for this new paradigm. This includes upskilling employees in digital literacy, AI fluency, and agile methodologies, preparing them to collaborate with intelligent technologies and data-driven tools.
4. Integrating People Strategy with Business Execution
A key component of Pressner’s role is to ensure tight alignment between people strategy and business outcomes. By integrating HR with business execution, she will ensure that workforce planning, performance management, and capability building directly support Nokia’s strategic priorities — particularly around growth, efficiency, and innovation.
5. Driving Employee Engagement and Well-being
Recognizing the importance of employee experience, Pressner is also expected to champion well-being, inclusivity, and engagement programs that reinforce Nokia’s culture of care. Her approach to HR leadership emphasizes empathy and listening — ensuring that people feel connected to Nokia’s mission and supported in their professional growth.
Cultural Transformation: Building the Workforce of Tomorrow
Nokia’s cultural transformation has been underway for several years, as it transitions from a legacy telecommunications provider into a technology-driven, digital solutions company. Pressner’s appointment reflects Nokia’s belief that culture is the most powerful enabler of sustainable transformation.
Her leadership philosophy — centered on authenticity, transparency, and empowerment — is expected to resonate across Nokia’s global organization. By championing a people-first mindset, she will help instill a culture where innovation thrives naturally, leadership is distributed, and every employee feels accountable for Nokia’s success.
This approach aligns with Nokia’s broader mission to create technology that helps the world act together. The company’s purpose-driven strategy emphasizes collaboration and shared impact — principles that rely on cohesive people systems and inspired leadership at every level.
Industry Context: HR Leadership as a Growth Driver in Technology
Nokia’s decision to elevate its HR leadership at this juncture underscores a wider trend in the technology sector: HR leaders are becoming strategic growth drivers, not just administrative enablers. As global companies navigate shifts driven by AI, remote work, automation, and new models of digital collaboration, human capital is increasingly viewed as a differentiating factor.
In this environment, Chief People Officers have evolved from compliance-focused executives into transformation architects, responsible for aligning people strategy with digital acceleration. Pressner’s appointment reflects this evolution — placing HR at the center of Nokia’s mission to become faster, more customer-centric, and more innovative.
For the broader industry, Nokia’s move highlights how global technology firms are investing heavily in human transformation alongside digital transformation. As automation increases, companies are reimagining what it means to be “human at work” — focusing on adaptability, creativity, and continuous learning as essential capabilities for the future.
Nokia’s Broader Transformation Journey
Under the leadership of Justin Hotard, Nokia has been repositioning itself as a leader in network technology, AI integration, and digital infrastructure solutions. The company’s strategic focus areas include:
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Next-generation networks and AI-enabled automation.
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Cloud transformation for enterprise and telecom customers.
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Sustainability and energy-efficient technology innovation.
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Customer-centric delivery models through agile execution.
In this broader transformation, Nokia’s people strategy is an essential pillar. By investing in HR leadership and culture evolution, the company aims to accelerate execution speed, innovation cycles, and organizational resilience. Pressner’s expertise in aligning global teams during change makes her a natural fit for this mission.
The Impact: What This Means for Nokia’s Stakeholders
For Employees
Nokia’s workforce will benefit from stronger leadership engagement, learning opportunities, and an inclusive culture that promotes growth and accountability. Employees can expect initiatives that prioritize skill development, well-being, and collaboration across functions and geographies.
For Leaders and Managers
Pressner’s focus on leadership development will enhance Nokia’s internal leadership pipeline. Managers will receive new frameworks for coaching, mentoring, and building high-performance teams aligned with strategic goals.
For Customers and Partners
A stronger people culture directly translates into better innovation, responsiveness, and customer experience. By aligning HR initiatives with business strategy, Nokia aims to deliver value to its global customers through more empowered and motivated teams.
For Investors
Investors and stakeholders view this appointment as a signal of Nokia’s long-term strategic maturity. By prioritizing people and culture as enablers of growth, Nokia reinforces confidence in its ability to execute transformation effectively and sustain innovation-led profitability.
Looking Ahead: Building Nokia’s Future Together
The next 12 to 18 months will be a decisive period for Kristen Pressner and her HR leadership team. Early focus areas will likely include a global culture alignment initiative, an AI-readiness workforce program, and leadership capability acceleration to support Nokia’s strategic goals.
Her appointment signifies more than just a change in leadership — it reflects a mindset shift within Nokia, where people are seen as the driving force behind every innovation. As Nokia continues to pioneer next-generation network and cloud technologies, its success will depend on how effectively it harnesses the potential of its global talent.
By placing an experienced, globally respected HR leader at the core of its executive team, Nokia is reaffirming that the future of technology depends as much on people and culture as on engineering and code.
Conclusion
Kristen Pressner’s appointment as Chief People Officer marks a defining moment in Nokia’s ongoing transformation. With her deep expertise in global HR, leadership development, and cultural change, she is uniquely positioned to align Nokia’s workforce strategy with its digital and AI-driven ambitions.
As the company navigates its next chapter of innovation and growth, Pressner’s leadership will help ensure that Nokia’s people remain its greatest strength — agile, inspired, and ready to lead the future of connected technology.
CXO Insiders is a platform for C-suite leaders, offering expert insights, industry trends, and strategic guidance. It covers leadership, technology, marketing, HR, and operations to support executive decision-making.
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