Huawei Australia chief executive Zhao Xichu departs, appoints Meng Xiaojie as new local boss

Huawei Australia has appointed Meng Xiaojie as its new chief executive, following the departure of outgoing chief Zhao Xichu.

The vendor said the change was in line with Huawei's global practice of rotating senior roles across different countries to promote innovation.

Zhao has held the position since February 2014 and during his tenure, grown Huawei Australia's sales revenue to $674 million, with an average annual growth rate of 19 percent.

His accolades include opening Huawei's first National Training and Innovation Centre in 2015 and launching the NB-IoT laboratory at James Cook University last month.

Huawei Australia chairman John Lord said he was excited to see Meng take on the role, and thanked Zhao for his contribution to the business.

“I welcome Mr Meng to the new role, and express my gratitude to our outgoing CEO, Mr Zhao Xichu, who drove Huawei’s impressive growth in the local market over the last three years,” said Lord.

Meng started with Huawei in 2005 and has held various senior roles with the vendor in different regions. He was most recently chief executive of Huawei Pakistan, responsible for day-to-day business operations and leading the local carrier, enterprise and consumer teams.

“I am really excited to take on the CEO role in Australia, Meng said.

“Australia is a very competitive market, but has strong growth opportunities for us in the carrier and enterprise sectors. We will persist on our 4.5G and 5G journey and keep delivering innovative NB-IoT solutions for the energy, utilities, transportation and agriculture industries.”

“We will help the local telecommunication market to become more efficient, cost effective and create innovative solutions for telecom operators.

“Australia has a leadership potential in the field of IoT technology, and we know that narrowband-internet of things (NB-IoT) will be the main game, if not the only game for IoT going forward.

“We also need to continue to raise our brand awareness, especially this year as we launch industry leading high-end consumer devices like Huawei P10 and Huawei Watch 2.0 in Australia.”

Meng will take over the role immediately.