Nuovo started his professional industrial design career in 1986, working with Charles Pelly's Designworks.
Early projects ranged from furniture to medical instruments and from consumer electronics and transportation interiors to complex air traffic and automated control systems workstation designs.
Nuovo's affiliation with Nokia began in 1989 through consultancy while working at Designworks/USA in Agoura.
Over the next decade (1995 to 2006), Nuovo led the creation of Nokia's first global design team, which, during his administration, included additional design centers in Finland and England and also included remote design teams in Denmark, China, Japan, Germany and the USA.
In late 2005, Nuovo began planning to leave his position at Nokia in order to focus on Vertu.