Nokia board chairman Jorma Ollila said Tuesday that he would leave his post by the year 2012 as expected, but that he would not "throw in the towel" at the world's leading mobile phone maker before then.
"As originally planned, the nominations committee of the Board of Directors has started searching for a new chairman with the view that at the 2012 Annual General
Meeting I would no longer stand for re-election," he told Nokia's annual general meeting in Helsinki, according to a script of his statement provided by Nokia.
Ollila, who has been a Nokia executive since 1986, stepped down as CEO in 2006 but remained chairman of the board of directors.
When he announced last September that Stephen Elop was replacing Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as CEO, Ollila said he would stay on to help with the transition but estimated that he would exit sometime around 2012.
At Tuesday's meeting, he said that for the time he has left, he was "committed" to helping Nokia, which has seen its market share eaten away by competitors in recent years.
"The past year has been extremely heavy, and I believe the current year will also be a demanding one," he said.