China Unicom director proud of governance progress
China Unicom executive director William Lo Wing-yan says although there have been many ups and downs for the mainland's No 2 mobile operator during his four-year stint, he is heartened by how much the company has progressed in corporate governance.
Mr Lo, 44, a vice-president of Unicom who has a doctorate in genetic engineering, has resigned and will be leaving next month. He said he was still considering what career step to take next.
Mr Lo has played an active role in communicating Unicom's operational health to the investment community and media - an essential task for the blue chip whose CDMA mobile business has been losing money since launching in 2002.
'I have been mulling over leaving Unicom for some time. I have worked here for over four years and see that my goal had been accomplished,' said Mr Lo, who has also been a consultant for McKinsey & Co, a managing director for Hongkong Telecom, and chief executive of Citibank's consumer banking division.
'My objectives when I first joined were to strengthen Unicom, which is a state-owned enterprise, and to reinforce its links and communications with the capital market.'
Mr Lo was instrumental in informing investors about Unicom's various provincial telecommunications assets acquisitions from its parent between 2002 and 2003, and when the company failed on its pledges to turn around its CDMA business for 2004 and 2005, he took the initiative to explain the situation to analysts and the media - a practice still unheard of at any of the other three listed Chinese telecommunications companies.
The company's CDMA business suffered a 200 million yuan pretax loss last year while its GSM business saw pretax profit grow 6.5 per cent to 7.28 billion yuan.
Mr Lo has worked with three chairmen during his tenure, spending the longest time with Wang Jianzhou, who is now chairman of China Mobile. He said he also had good working relationships with current chairman Chang Xiaobing, former head of China Telecom.
'Chairman Wang might not be very hands-on, but he has strong leadership and vision. He is very eager to learn,' he said.
Mr Chang was a more pragmatic leader, he said, attributing this year's steady growth in the CDMA business to Mr Chang's management skills. The network signed up 4.91 million users last year, taking its total to 32.72 million.
