September 16 news: HP will announce the appointment of Gao Ruibin as the new Managing Director of HP China and Vice President of the Enterprise Business Division. Rumors of the former president of Motorola China joining HP began circulating in May this year, and now it is officially confirmed. The N97mini Hong Kong version price has been released.
Gao Ruibin's appointment will take effect on September 21, 2010. Prior to this, he worked at Motorola for 17 years.
The previous head and president of HP China, Fu Biaobang, was promoted by headquarters earlier this year and appointed as Senior Vice President of HP Global and Managing Director of the Asia Pacific and Japan region. The position of Managing Director of HP China was concurrently held by Fu Biaobang until a suitable candidate was found. At that time, there were rumors that Gao Ruibin would take up this position.
Since April this year, when Meng Mu, General Manager of Qualcomm Greater China, joined Motorola China, rumors of Gao Ruibin leaving Motorola started spreading. One industry rumor suggested that these three companies would sequentially replace their respective China leaders.
Fu Biaobang commented on the appointment of Gao Ruibin: "Mr. Gao Ruibin has an excellent track record in delivering results, driving enterprise growth, and maintaining market leadership. This is quite important for us to continue fulfilling our commitments to customers and maintaining our leading position in the Chinese market."
During Fu Biaobang's tenure, HP China was considered to have a style more focused on cost compression and performance growth. During the transition period of senior management, HP China's PSG Group (Information Products Group) also experienced a series of crises, including the screen flickering issue. Gao Ruibin's joining is believed to bring about some changes in HP’s style, and his extensive experience in telecommunications business is also seen as beneficial to HP China's communications business.