Nokia, Finland’s mobile giant, named Henry Tirri as their new Chief Technology Officer and a member of the Nokia Leadership Team.  And as Nokia embraces North America and its tech companies, Tirri will be stateside.  The new appointment comes in the wake of an executive upset at Nokia after the mobile handset maker showed signs of significant decline and subsequently inked a deal with Microsoft.

As CTO, Tirri will assume responsibility for the CTO organization, charged with setting Nokia’s technology agenda both now and in the future, and driving core innovation to enable business development opportunities.  He will directly report to Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop.

“During his time at Nokia, Henry has provided Nokia technical leadership and challenged us to explore forward-looking technologies. In his new role, Henry will have the opportunity to make a greater impact and set the course for Nokia and our role in the mobile industry,” said Elop. “The company would also like to thank Rich Green for the key role he played in assisting Nokia through a major transition. We wish him all the best success in his future ventures.”

Tirri was formerly the Head of Nokia Research Centre (NRC), Nokia’s forward-looking research facility.  He joined Nokia in 2004 as a Research Fellow before leading NRC Systems Research laboratory in 2007.  He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Tirri will be based in Sunnyvale, California.

Tirri will be relieving Richard Green of his duties as Chief Technology Officer effective today, September 22, 2011.  Green became Nokia’s CTO back in May 2010 and a member of the Nokia Leadership Team since February 11, 2011.  Back in June, Green took a leave of absence and today Nokia made it official and announced that Green chose to leave Nokia and will be returning to the US to pursue other career opportunities.  With his departure, he is no longer a member of the Nokia Leadership Team.