Flander Nabs Nokia Exec

HELSINKI -- With a clear focus on growth, telecommunications software testing and development specialist Flander has invited Markus Suomi from Nokia to become the company's CEO. In his 14 years at Nokia, Mr Suomi played a significant part in the company's smart phone platform business. He led, for example, development of the Nokia S60 smart phone platform product and the resulting business. Mr Suomi will take up his new position with Flander on May 7th.

Flander has grown profitably for ten years in a row with annual growth rates of approximately 50%. In 2006, the company focused on internationalizing its operations, establishing a subsidiary in Sweden and strengthening its presence in China.

Markus Suomi joined Nokia in 1993, his primary task was heading up the company's S60 Mobile Software Platform unit. S60 is the world's leading smart phone platform - at the end of April, Nokia announced that more than 100 million devices using the S60 operating platform have been delivered.

Mr Suomi's association with Nokia's S60 product development and business operations, which he both launched and ran, totalled eight years. He was also on the management board of Nokia Technology Platforms, one of Nokia's main units.

"The future prospects for our business are good, and now is the right moment to invite an experienced professional in international technology business to become our CEO. Markus Suomi is very familiar with the sector in which we operate and has clearly demonstrated his ability to build new and successful businesses and establish and manage international expert organisations," says Mike Frayne, chairman of the Flander board.

Flander Oy