Nokia's chief legal officer dies in hotel accident

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Nokia’s chief legal officer, Swedish-born Carl Belding, has died following an accident at a Swiss hotel. He died a week ago last Friday (September 21st) after falling from his hotel balcony. He had been in Switzerland on a business trip.
      The company’s Communications SVP Arja Suominen said that there was no suggestion of foul play, and that the Swiss police had investigated the incident and were convinced it was a simple tragic accident.
     
Nokia did not report Belding’s death to the media. According to Suominen, this is normal practice. In the case of the demise of a member of the Group Executive Board, the company would issue an immediate statement. Belding was not a member of the Executive Board.
      Carl Belding, who was 51 at the time of his death, joined Nokia in 2006 from IBM, where he had been the first non-American general counsel in that company’s history. He became the international head of Nokia’s legal team of more than 150 lawyers, operating in over 100 countries.
      Louise Pentland, the legal counsel of the company’s Enterprise Solutions unit, will act as Nokia’s temporary chief legal officer for the time being, while a replacement is sought.
     
Earlier in September, Belding had spoken for Nokia in relation to a patent infringement dispute with the American technology firm Qualcomm, expressing the view that the Finnish manufacturer had every confidence the Qualcomm claims (that Nokia had infringed six of its patents in its GSM technology) would be shown to be unfounded.
      Qualcomm has in fact withdrawn three of the original six suits against the Finnish company.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  US import ban sought for Nokia phones (24.8.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat