Nokia Technologies Names Former Cisco Executive Guido Jouret as CTO

Having shed its mobile phone unit, Nokia has three main businesses: The Here mapping unit, a network equipment business and an advanced technology unit that is home to the company’s patents.

Nokia

That last group, known as Nokia Technologies, has so far released just two products: A launcher app for Android and the N1, an Android tablet designed by Nokia but licensed to another company along with the Nokia brand.

To help fuel further innovation, the company is announcing on Tuesday that it has hired former Cisco executive Guido Jouret to serve as Nokia Technologies’ chief technology officer. Jouret will report to Ramzi Haidamus, the president of Nokia Technologies and a relative newcomer, having joined Nokia from Dolby Labs last year. Both are based in the company’s Sunnyvale, Calif., offices, although the unit also has offices in Cambridge, England, and the Finnish cities of Espoo and Tampere.

Jouret was most recently head of an innovation lab for Envision Energy. Before that he was at Cisco for 20 years, most recently as head of the company’s Internet of Things unit.

The move comes as Nokia continues to undergo transformation. Nokia has confirmed it is in “advanced discussions” to buy rival network gear maker Alcatel-Lucent while also reportedly seeking bids for its mapping unit.

Just what becomes of the technology unit remains unclear. It has vast patent holdings and could choose to focus most of its energy on licensing the technology. However, with the N1 and other projects, the company has shown an interest in continuing to create new products.

A recent LinkedIn job post suggests that telepresence and virtual reality are among the areas that the unit is exploring. The “Presence Capture program in Nokia Technologies, Products Business is building a video and audio solution to transmit 3D presence in Virtual Reality,” it says in the listing.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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