Huawei on Tuesday announced the hiring of Colin Giles as the company’s new executive vice president for its consumer business group. Giles was formerly with Nokia for more than 20 years and was instrumental in the company’s expansion into China and other Asian markets. Most recently, he was the head of sales for Nokia, however he resigned in 2012 as Lumia sales continued to slump. With Huawei, Giles will be in charge of global marketing, retail and open channel development. The executive’s biggest challenge will be Huawei’s continuing effort to grow its market share in Western countries. The company’s press release follows below.
Huawei Appoints Colin Giles as Executive Vice President of Huawei Consumer Business Group
Giles to be Responsible for Global Marketing, Retail and Open Channel DevelopmentShenzhen, China, July 2, 2013: Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Colin Giles as Executive Vice President, Huawei Consumer Business Group, effective from July 1st, 2013. A widely respected figure in the mobile handset world, Giles will be in charge of global marketing, retail and open channel development.
Richard Yu, Chief Executive Officer, Huawei Consumer Business Group said, “Colin has achieved phenomenal success in his previous roles in the industry and has a wealth of experience in mobile brand marketing, device sales, and open channel development. We are thrilled to welcome him to our team and believe he will be instrumental in further propelling the growth of Huawei’s global marketing efforts, and contribute to our goal to become a leading consumer brand in the world.”
“I am delighted to join Huawei at such an exciting time in the development of Huawei’s consumer brand,” Giles said. “Over the last couple of years, the company has already made big strides in the global marketplace with the introduction of flagship products that quickly became the talk of the town, like the world’s slimmest smartphone Ascend P6 launched just weeks ago. I look forward to working closely with everyone in the Consumer Business Group to continue to ‘Make it Possible’ for smartphone users worldwide.”
Giles is an experienced senior executive in the handset industry and brings a global perspective and deep experience in the Chinese market to his new role. With his proven expertise in handset brand marketing, sales and channel development, Giles’ appointment will strengthen Huawei’s consumer business in these key areas as the company gains momentum to be a recognized leading global brand in the smartphone industry.
Huawei has achieved rapid growth in the global smartphone market as well as increased brand recognition in recent years. In 2012, Huawei’s Consumer Business Group recorded sales revenues of USD 7.5 billion, a year-on-year growth of 60%, and shipped 127 million units of devices globally, among which 32 million units were smartphones. In the first quarter of 2013, Huawei ranked number four in global market share for smartphone shipments, according to research reports from Strategy Analytics and IDC.
In the first half of 2013, Huawei launched a series of flagship smartphones including the HUAWEI Ascend Mate boasting the largest screen in the world, the HUAWEI Ascend D2 featuring a 5-inch FHD 443 PPI super retinal screen, and the industry-first LTE Cat4-enabled HUAWEI Ascend P2 that can achieve the fastest network download speeds in the world. On June 18 in London, Huawei launched another flagship smartphone, the HUAWEI Ascend P6, the world’s slimmest smartphone at only 6.18mm thin with outstanding camera capabilities and the latest intuitive Emotion UI, a device that is the embodiment of elegance with an edge. This once again demonstrated Huawei’s ambition and commitment to the global smartphone market.
