Xiaomi Vice President Cui Baoqiu Leaves Group

Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi issued a letter to all employees on December 30, announcing that the firm’s Learning and Development Department was being merged into the Human Resources Department. At the same time, Cui Baoqiu, the former vice president of the group and general manager of the Learning and Development Department, has left for personal reasons, Jiemian News reported.

Cui, a classmate of Xiaomi founder Lei Jun in the computer department of Wuhan University, holds a doctorate from the computer department of Stony Brook University, and has more than 20 years of experience in software and internet development and technology management. He served as the chief engineer of LinkedIn from 2010 to 2012, chief engineer of Yahoo’s search technology team from 2006 to 2010, senior engineer and senior R&D manager of IBM from 2000 to 2006.

Since joining Xiaomi in June 2012, Cui has served as chief architect, vice president of artificial intelligence and cloud platform, and chairman of the technical committee. Leidi reported that Cui will return to the United States to reunite with his family after leaving Xiaomi.

In fact, Cui has almost ceased to be in charge of Xiaomi‘s core business since he ended his tenure as chairman of the technical committee of the group. In February 2021, Xiaomi made a round of structural adjustments to its technical system, and the AI department was merged into the technical committee. Ye Hangjun, general manager of the AI department, was appointed as the chairman of the technical committee, while Cui was transferred to the president of Xiaomi‘s Qinghe University.

At that time, the adjustment was interpreted as Xiaomi paying great attention to its car-building project. As the general manager of the AI department, Ye Hangjun was rumored to be mainly responsible for automatic driving. In the personnel appointment announced later, Ye became the person in charge of automatic driving.

In the past week, Xiaomi has made frequent structural adjustments. On December 22, Lei Jun announced in a letter from all employees that Wang Xiang, the president of the group, would leave at the end of the month, continuing to serve the company as a senior consultant. In addition, co-founders Hong Feng and Wang Chuan also withdrew from the front line of business at the end of last year, and they continue to support and promote the strategic development of the company in the partners committee as co-founders.

SEE ALSO: Xiaomi Changes Management, William Lu to Succeed Wang Xiang as President

On December 30, Xiaomi issued a further announcement, revealing that William Lu had been promoted to the president of the group and will continue to serve as the president of the group’s international business department. He will also manage the group’s mobile phone department, ecological chain department, home appliance department, China region and India region. Wang Xiaoyan, Qu Heng and Ma Ji were promoted to vice presidents of the group.

According to Leidi’s report, a former senior manager at Xiaomi commented that the company was established 12 years ago, indicating a full cycle in Chinese culture. “Something will always happen. Good or bad. It may be a brand-new starting point, symbolizing an endless cycle that goes back and forth,” said the source.