Huawei starts management transition

Huawei Technologies Co, a $30 billion Chinese telecoms gear maker, has initiated a system this year to allow top executives to take turns acting as chief executive, its founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said in a year-end message.

The rotating CEO system is apparently aimed at paving the way for a smooth management handover from 67-year-old Ren, although it is unclear when Ren intends to retire, analysts said.

"Huawei is entering a post-Ren era," said Ji Yongqing, author of a book titled "Huawei's World."

"Huawei hopes to realize a smooth and steady power handover from its founder and first-generation leaders to the second generation," Ji told Reuters.

Huawei, built from scratch by media-shy Ren in 1987 into the world's No. 2 telecommunications equipment maker, has never made public its management succession plan.

The company is jointly owned by its employees and is not listed.

"The rotating system is better than sole reliance on a single person for the success of the company," Ren wrote in a year-end message to its 130,000 employees that has also been posted on Chinese news websites.

The new structure requires a number of top Huawei executives, including vice chairman Guo Ping and several executive directors of its board, to act as chief executive for six months at a time, according to the article by Ren and a source close to Huawei.

Ren, who revealed in the message that he twice underwent cancer surgery a few years ago, hopes the new system will help strengthen corporate governance, analysts and the source said.

Reuters