Huawei makes first management shuffle in six years
Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, has adopted a new rotating chairman system as part of its unique ‘collective leadership’ strategy
Huawei Technologies has promoted Sabrina Meng Wanzhou, its chief financial officer (CFO) and daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, to vice-chairwoman as part of a broader reshuffle that once again shone a light onto the unique management structure at the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier.
Meng will become one of four executives holding the vice-chair role and will remain as CFO, according to a Huawei spokesman. Her father in turn relinquished his vice-chairman role, while retaining his chief executive title as the company elected a new board for the first time since 2012 amid setbacks to its expansion into the US.
Under a rotation system, vice-chairmen Guo Ping, Eric Xu Zhijun and Ken Hu Houkun previously took turns every six months as rotating chief executive, working alongside Ren. With the reshuffle, the three executives will no longer rotate as chief executive, but will instead rotate as chairman, working alongside a permanent chairman, Howard Liang Hua.
The reshuffle at the company Ren founded in 1987 has left some analysts puzzled.
While Ren, 73, has been adamant that none of his family members would succeed him in leading Huawei, Meng’s additional role as vice-chairwoman would seem to put her in the line of succession.
It was unclear how Huawei’s new rotating chairman system would help the company, according to Bryan Ma, a vice-president at technology research firm IDC, following its previous rotating chief executive process.