Stephen Elop (born 31 December 1963) is a Canadian businessman who most recently worked at Australian telecom company Telstra from April 2016.

[1] In the past he had worked for Nokia as its first non-Finnish CEO[2][3] and later as Executive Vice President, Devices & Services, as well as the head of the Microsoft Business Division, as the COO of Juniper Networks, as the president of worldwide field operations at Adobe Systems, in several senior positions in Macromedia and as the CIO at Boston Chicken.

[4] He is best known for his ill-fated tenure as Nokia CEO from 2010 to 2014, which included controversies such as the "burning platform" memo and the company's partnership with Microsoft, resulting in the move to Windows Phone software exclusivity.

After his first year at the University, Elop wrote the user operating manual, called the Orange Book, for the campus's new computer system,[12] VAX-11/780.

[18] In 1998 he joined Macromedia's Web/IT department[17] and worked at the company for seven years,[citation needed] where he held several senior positions, including as: general manager of the e-business division; executive vice president of worldwide field operations; COO;[19] and finally as CEO from January 2005[20] for three months before their acquisition by Adobe Systems was announced in April 2005.

[21][22] Due to family reasons, Elop lived at his Canadian home in Limehouse, Ontario, commuting to work in California with Air Canada.

With an exchange of $3.4 billion in stock, the acquisition combined the companies’ document management, web publishing and online video delivery tools.

[31][32] In late 2007 Elop was approached by Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, with whom he met several times including chairman Bill Gates.

[37] Also during his tenure as president, the Business Division formed an alliance with Nokia on 12 August 2009 to bring Microsoft Office Mobile to Symbian OS.

[49][50]The memo was not intended for the public but was eventually leaked by Engadget on 8 February 2011, becoming widely circulated and receiving a large deal of attention.

[51] The "new strategy" bit highly speculated to tech bloggers that Nokia would form an alliance with Microsoft, particularly after Google's Vic Gundotra tweeted "Two turkeys do not make an Eagle" shortly after the leak.

It was then reported that Nokia's VP Anssi Vanjoki originally said this quote in 2005 about BenQ's purchase of Siemens's mobile phone business.

[57] In an interview with the Financial Post, Elop described the memo as "a very powerful statement of the reality of the situation without a lot of marketing polish on it.

"[51] On 11 February 2011 in a press conference in London, Elop officially announced the new strategy for Nokia, which involved a "strategic partnership" with Microsoft and shifting its smartphone strategy to Microsoft's Windows Phone, whilst gradually phasing out their in-house Symbian and MeeGo operating systems (expected it to be finalized by 2016, but actually finished in January 2014, and plans for any MeeGo devices beyond the Nokia N9 were scrapped).

[61] In an interview held late 2012, Elop stated the reason for switching to Windows instead of Android: "the single most important word is 'differentiation'.

"[62] When asked if he regretted this choice in 2013, Elop said "What we were worried about a couple of years ago was the very high risk that one hardware manufacturer could come to dominate Android" thanks to vertical integration, and pointing out "Now fast forward to today and examine the Android ecosystem, and there's a lot of good devices from many different companies, but one company [Samsung] has essentially now become the dominant player".

[71][72] Some critics, especially in Finland, started to speculate that Elop could be a trojan horse, whose mission was to prepare Nokia for a future acquisition by Microsoft.

[68][73][74][75][76] When confronted with the theory by an anonymous attendee of the 2011 Mobile World Congress, Elop denied the speculation stating, "The obvious answer is, no.

[78] In the book The Decline and Fall of Nokia published in 2014, author David J. Cord firmly rejects the idea that Elop was a Trojan Horse.

"[80] In May 2013, after the two years that he had been granted for the transition to the Windows Phone platform, Elop was pressed by Nokia's shareholders about the lack of results compared to the competitors and the insufficient sales figures to secure the company's survival.

During the annual general meeting, several shareholders voiced that they were running out of patience with Elop's efforts in putting Nokia back to the smartphone race.

Some analysts speculated that Nokia had already lost the smartphone race to Samsung and Apple, and that if they were to regain their position in the market, it would have to be by means of low-end devices such as the Asha.

Controversy arose around Elop receiving a €18.8 million bonus after Nokia sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft and he stepped down as the CEO.

[95] Moreover, the chairman of Nokia's Board of Directors gave initially incorrect information about the contract to the public, and had to correct his statements later.

[96] Shortly before his departure from Nokia, Elop had filed for divorce, which he also cited as a reason to reject a renegotiation of the controversial bonus.

[100] Criticism spread to politics, with Prime Minister of Finland Jyrki Katainen telling Finnish television that the payoff was "quite outrageous", and that it cannot be justified given the country's difficult economic times.

Jutta Urpilainen, the minister of finance, wrote on her blog "In addition to the general toxic atmosphere, it [the payoff] may be a threat to social harmony".

"[107] On 16 March 2016, Australia's largest telecommunications provider Telstra announced that Elop would be joining the company in a newly created position as Group Executive Technology, Innovation and Strategy.

[108][109][110] In his first speech at a Telstra conference in September 2016, Elop cited Nokia as an example of a "great" company that can self-assess and "transform" when necessary, referencing its success as a networks equipment supplier.

[113] On 17 September 2019, APiJET, a Seattle-based joint venture of Aviation Partners, Inc. and iJet Technologies which makes real-time aircraft data analytics, announced that Elop had been named its CEO.