Huawei Australia mourns Peter Rossi after 'sudden' death

Peter Rossi, a veteran of Huawei Australia, passed away last Monday in Melbourne.

In an email to staff on Monday 30 May, Huawei Australia chief executive Zhao Xichu said that Rossi had died "suddenly" that morning.

"The Australian ICT industry has lost one of its best. Peter was respected for his tireless and dedicated work having spent more than 30 years in the industry at leading ICT companies," he said.

Rossi joined Huawei's Australian arm in 2009 as chief technology officer, then became cybersecurity officer at the start of 2012. He had joined Huawei on the back of a long career in telecommunications, including stints at Alcatel and Lucent as well as a 14-year stay at Telstra starting in 1986.

"Huawei Australia has lost a pioneer and we have all lost a great friend. The contribution Peter made to building the foundation of Huawei Australia over the past seven years as our CTO and CSO will never be forgotten. Through his warmth, wisdom and generosity of spirit to many of us Peter was a teacher," said Zhao.

Rossi was an electronic and communications engineering alumni of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne and a Victorian council member of the Australian Information Industry Association.

Very sad news that a good friend & work mate has died. Vale Peter Rossi, a great contributor to #Huawei & telco both in Australia & global.

— jeremyjmitchell (@jeremyjmitchell) May 30, 2016

The funeral will be held 10:30am Thursday at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in the inner Melbourne suburb of Northcote. His family has requested that donations be made to the National Heart Foundation in place of flowers.

In his email, Zhao thanked Huawei staff for comforting Rossi and his family at the hospital over the preceding weekend, and offered counselling services for employees that needed assistance.

Tributes from Huawei colleagues and industry peers flowed in last week as the news spread on social media.

"RIP my friend! Thank you for the memories. I'll miss you man," said Huawei Queensland state manager Lawrence Gatica, while Hitachi Data Systems ANZ vice president Nathan McGregor said: "Peter was an original, one-of-a-kind and will be greatly missed".

Huawei Australia corporate and public affairs director Jeremy Mitchell tweeted: "Very sad news that a good friend & work mate has died. Vale Peter Rossi, a great contributor to #Huawei & telco both in Australia & global."

One of Rossi's final public appearances in front of the channel was at the Huawei partner conference in Sydney on May 12 – less than three weeks before his passing – where he and chief technology officer Sam Houston answered questions from the audience. Rossi also appeared at the CRN Pipeline Sydney conference in April, to speak on cybersecurity.

A Huawei Australia spokesperson said this morning that staff were "still in shock".