ZTE has announced the appointment of CTO Zhao Xianming as its new chairman and CEO. He replaces as CEO Shi Lirong, who has been in the role since 2010, and founder Hou Weigui as chairman. Its board also confirmed Wei Zaisheng as CFO and Fan Qingfeng, Zeng Xuezhong, Xu Huijun, Pang Shengqing, Zhang Zhenhui and Chen Jianzhou as executive VPs of the group. Shi Lirong will remain a member of the board of directors.
The new appointments are reportedly in part the result of a deal with the US government to remove restrictions on ZTE's suppliers. The US blocked exports to ZTE after finding that the Chinese company violated US sanctions against Iran. According to the Wall Street Journal, the US government said that ZTE executives associated with the alleged violations should be removed from management positions.
The executives Tian Wenguo and Qiu Weizhao were notably not mentioned by ZTE in its new list of top management. In a 2011 ZTE internal document obtained and disclosed last month by the US government, Tian and Qiu were named as executives in charge of the company’s plans for allegedly circumventing US export rules. The document detailed ZTE’s plans to set up shell companies to ship goods to Iran.
