HTC EMEA President to join Nokia as head of European sales from June, HTC UK head Phil Blair to take over
Update: HTC has confirmed Seiche’s exit, and says former VP of Product and Operations Phil Blair has taken over as its new EMEA head in addition to overseeing HTC’s UK arm. We’ve got the company’s official statement after the break.
Original story: Bloomberg is reporting that Florian Seiche, EMEA President at HTC, will be joining Nokia as head of European sales from June 15. Seiche, a familiar sight at European HTC press conferences, has been with the company since 2005, prior to which he served as Director of Devices at Orange. According to Bloomberg, Nokia’s own EMEA head Shiv Shivakumar is leaving the company, to be replaced by its VP of smart devices for the Americas, Arto Nummela.
HTC and Nokia are in the midst of difficult times, as both are squeezed by fierce competition from Samsung and Apple. HTC in particular has seen dwindling sales and market share as a result to the meteoric rise of Samsung in the Android space. By comparison, Nokia recently returned to profitability, but its long-term fate is tied to that of Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS.
Source: Bloomberg
HTC Statement:
“HTC, a global leader in smartphone innovation, has today announced the appointment of Phil Blair as its new Head of EMEA. Previously Vice President of Product and Operations for the region, Phil has been with the company since it launched in EMEA in 2005 and has worked closely with Florian Seiche as co-founder during that time to grow the business to where it is today. Replacing Florian, who has made the decision to leave the company, Phil will be responsible for leading HTC’s strategic growth across EMEA, in addition to heading up the UK arm of the business. Phil’s depth of experience in the smartphone market, intrinsic understanding of mobile products and long-standing relationships with key industry partners put him in a strong position to create new opportunities for the business, taking HTC into its next phase of growth. We would like to thank Florian for his commitment to the company and to wish him well in his future endeavours.”