Ren Zhengfei
Ren Zhengfei, 68, is the founder and CEO of Huawei Technologies — the world’s second biggest telecom equipment maker.
Rising from humble rural beginnings as one of seven children to school teacher parents, Ren went on to serve as an engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for nearly a decade, and was invited to join the National People’s Congress (NPC) in 1982. Ren founded Huawei in 1987 with $3,300, and now the Shenzhen
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more Ren Zhengfei
Ren Zhengfei, 68, is the founder and CEO of Huawei Technologies — the world’s second biggest telecom equipment maker.
Rising from humble rural beginnings as one of seven children to school teacher parents, Ren went on to serve as an engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for nearly a decade, and was invited to join the National People’s Congress (NPC) in 1982. Ren founded Huawei in 1987 with $3,300, and now the Shenzhen listed telecom giant has a market cap of $238 million. He helped transform the company from a local business in to a global telecommunications provider.
Huawei has long been plagued with suspicions of having close ties to Beijing and the military as it tries to expand globally, because of Ren’s background. The company recently made headlines after an 11-month U.S. government investigation urged American firms to stop doing business with Huawei and smaller Chinese rival ZTE. It cited concerns that Beijing could use equipment made by the two companies to spy on certain communications. The Australian government also blocked Huawei this year from bidding for a $38 billion high-speed broadband project in the country on concerns its equipment could be used for espionage amid cyber security fears.
Photo: Wang Xiwei | ChinaFotoPress | Getty Images
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Thu 8 Nov, 2012 12:30 PM IST