Like many companies led by influential founders, leadership succession has been a big question for Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies
But Huawei, founded by Chinese engineer Ren Zhengfei in 1987, is unlikely to choose one leader to replace 69-year-old Ren, according to a top executive.
“In the future, the successor to Mr. Ren will not be just one person,” said Eric Xu, Huawei’s acting chief executive, at the company’s annual analyst conference in Shenzhen. The successor could be a team of leaders rather than one leader, he said, without providing more details.
At Huawei, three executives — Xu, Guo Ping and Ken Hu — take turns and rotate through the acting CEO position every six months. The company introduced this system in 2011.
Ren, meanwhile, remains the company’s permanent CEO.
According to Huawei, Ren has the right to veto decisions made by the company’s board. Still, Huawei director Chen Lifang said in an interview last year that Ren had never exercised the veto right.
The unique rotating CEO system has sometimes raised questions from analysts and other industry observers about who makes decisions at Huawei.
At the analyst meeting Wednesday, Xu didn’t provide a clear answer to the question on whether the current rotating CEO system will be a temporary arrangement or a permanent structure.
It’s still unclear what exact shape Huawei’s management will take in the generation after Ren.
“How we get there, only time will tell,” Xu said.
Ren, who rarely makes public appearances, wasn’t available for comment.
Huawei is the world’s second-largest supplier of telecom networking gear by revenue after Sweden’s Ericsson. Last month, the company said it expects its revenue in 2018 to be about 80% higher than its 2013 revenue of roughly $40 billion.
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