[News] Sabrina Meng, Daughter of Founder Ren Zhengfei, Takes over Huawei’s Rotating Chair

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Chinese tech giant Huawei has appointed a new Rotating CEO for the company. After Eric Xu ended his tenure on September 30^th, Sabrina Meng assumes the position of Rotating and Acting Chair of Huawei from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, according to the company’s press release.

During her term, Meng will serve in the company’s top leadership position and head the Board of Directors and its Executive Committee, the press release states.

It is worth noting that Meng is the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, who is also the company’s director. According to a report by the Economic Daily News, Meng served as Huawei’s rotating chairperson for the first time on April 19, 2023, and this marks her second term in this role.

Economic Daily News notes that the rotating chairperson system is Huawei’s unique management model. According to the report, Huawei implemented the rotating COO (Chief Operating Officer) system in 2004, which later evolved into the rotating chairperson system in 2018.

Currently, Huawei has three rotating chairpersons: Eric Xu, Ken Hu and Sabrina Meng, with rotations occurring every six months, Economic Daily News notes.

Citing remarks from analysts, the report suggests that the rotating system allows the company’s leadership to examine its strategy and operations from different perspectives, which may help to avoid biases and rigidity in personal decision-making. However, some argue that the system may lead to ambiguity in accountability, as the six-month term may be too short to implement a strategy from beginning to end.

According to the information shown on Huawei’s website, Sabrina Meng joined Huawei in 1993 and has held positions including Director of the International Accounting Dept, CFO of Huawei Hong Kong, and President of the Accounting Mgmt Dept. She now serves as Deputy Chairwoman of the Board, and Rotating Chairwoman and CFO of Huawei.

Meng was arrested and detained in Canada in 2018, reportedly at the request of the U.S. for alleged bank fraud. After three years of detention, she returned to China in September, 2021, after reaching a deal with U.S. prosecutors to resolve the case, easing the tension between the two global superpowers, according to a report by Reuters.

Huawei has been making strides in the development of AI chips in recent years. To rival U.S. AI giant NVIDIA, the tech conglomerate is said to initiate sampling of its latest AI accelerator, Ascend 910C, to large Chinese server companies and internet firms. Ascend 910B, which the company claims to rival NVIDIA’s A100, has been popular among multiple industries across the country for AI model training.

Read more

• [News] Huawei Reportedly Begins Sampling of Ascend 910C to Rival NVIDIA
• [News] China Reportedly Advises Local Companies to Avoid NVIDIA’s H20, Benefiting Huawei and Cambricon

(Photo credit: Huawei)