Joerg Erlemeier is joining Nokia’s leadership team as COO. Erlemeier, a 20-year Nokia veteran, will replace former COO Monika Maurer who is leaving after just eight months on the job.

Nokia said that Maurer will support Erlemeier during the transition and then leave to pursue new opportunities outside the telecom vendor.

Erlemeier most recently was SVP of Nokia Transformation. He has held several leadership positions at the company including heading the Middle East and Africa region, leading services in Asia-Pacific, Japan, and North America, and serving as COO of the mobile networks business.

Maurer was promoted to COO in April. Previously she was COO of the company’s fixed networks division. But unlike Erlemeier, Maurer’s roots were at Alcatel-Lucent, which Nokia acquired in 2016. Maurer’s resume includes being COO of Alcatel-Lucent’s fixed networks business and overseeing sales in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East for ALU.

"I want to thank Monika for her contributions to Nokia, and Alcatel-Lucent before that. I warmly welcome Joerg to the GLT and look forward to working together to further strengthen our disciplined operating model," said Rajeev Suri.

Like many of the large telecom infrastructure vendors, Nokia has been facing some operational challenges. In the third quarter, the company saw its revenues drop 7 percent year-over-year to $6.4 billion. The company’s largest business unit, the Networks Business, was down 9 percent year-over-year and its second largest unit, Ultra Broadband, was down 17 percent.