Esa Niinimäki appointed CLO of Nokia

Esa Niinimäki appointed CLO of Nokia

He defined the governance practice while serving the Finnish telecom giant for over 15 years

Nokia has appointed Esa Niinimäki as the chief legal officer. Following the departure of Nassib Abou-Khalil last year, Niinimäki was serving in the role on an interim basis.

He will report to the company's president and chief executive officer, Pekka Lundmark, who remarked, "Niinimäki is an experienced leader and an influential contributor to Nokia's strategy. He has a strong vision for the company's legal function and will ensure it continues to be a strategic partner to the business. I am delighted to announce his appointment."

Niinimäki added, "Nokia has a strong ethics culture with compliance as a key value, uniting the efforts of the business and legal teams. I am honored to lead this best-in-class legal and compliance function and be a member of the group leadership team as the company continues its strategic transformation."

Niinimäki defined governance practices for the company as deputy chief legal officer. Earlier, he served as general counsel of its global services business group and senior legal counsel, legal and IP, for the IMEA region.

Niinimäki joined Nokia in 2007 from Metsä Group, where he was group legal counsel. Prior to that, he was an associate at White & Case.

Meanwhile, Abou-Khalil joined Nokia in 2014 after leaving Yahoo, where he was head of public policy for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and general counsel for the Middle East and Africa.

He became the CLO in 2019, after serving in a number of senior roles at the company, including general counsel for global customer operations and deputy CLO for business. In 2021, he unveiled one of the most comprehensive schemes to date by an in-house legal team targeted at promoting diversity among legal advisers.