China's smartphone maker, Honor, just announced that Chief Executive Officer George Zhao resigned. He has also stepped down from being a board member due to personal reasons. This is the result of appointing Jian Li, who will head the company in his place. This is less than two days after Honor publicly denied rumors stating that Zhao has left the firm.
Zhao, with Honor's journey, hails back from 1998 when he initially joined Huawei; during his long stay, Zhao has held most of the main positions. Then, in 2011, Huawei launched this brand, by 2015, Zhao already became president over Honor's business operations. By the time when Zhao took command, Honor became one of those steady sales increasing smartphone brands with a strong claim in the smartphones market.
In 2020, amid external pressures on Huawei, the company sold Honor, and Zhao took charge of the newly independent brand. Zhao successfully guided Honor to strong growth in China, with the brand becoming the only Chinese smartphone company to post positive growth in 2022. Honor had ambitious IPO plans in August 2024, but leadership changes have been frequent in the lead-up to this. Zhao's exit marks the end of an era for Honor, as he said he wants to focus on his health and spend more time with family while wishing the company continued success.
Jian Li, the newly appointed CEO of Honor, is a seasoned executive with a wealth of experience in international markets. Like Zhao, Li is a Huawei alumnus who played a significant role in the company's international operations by serving in senior management roles for the company across many markets. Li was involved in the crucial strategic overhauls for Honor as vice chairman and head of human resources when he joined the company in 2021.
Honor, following the completion of its corporate restructuring in December 2024, transformed into a joint-stock company as it prepared for the IPO. In order to avail itself of a public listing that will help better its capital structure and support its strategic goals, the company is seeking it. Even while it faces massive market pressure, Honor continues to be competitive within the Chinese market with Canalys indicating 42.2 million shipments of smartphones last year, 15% share of the market. However, data from Counterpoint reveals that Honor is yet to crack the top five globally.
In its push to expand internationally, Honor is going to enter the Indonesian market early 2025 as a mark of commitment towards expanding its footprint across the world.