Huawei Executive Director Ryan Ding Dies of Sudden Illness

During the late hours of October 7, Huawei released an internal message stating that Ryan Ding, Deputy Chairman of the firm’s supervisory board, had died early that morning at the age of 53 due to a sudden illness. Ding was a key member of Huawei’s management team.

Before the official obituary was released, Yu Weihua, President of the Exhwer Club (“Ex-Huawei-er”), an association of former company employees, revealed on social media that Ding “didn’t wake up” because of heart problems after running for 28 km. However, the accuracy of this statement has not yet been officially confirmed.

Huawei’s official website shows that Ryan Ding was born in 1969 and graduated from China’s Southeast University with a master’s degree. He joined Huawei in 1996 and has served as Product Line President, President of the Global Solution Sales Dept, President of the Global Marketing Dept, and President of Products and Solutions.

SEE ALSO: Huawei Cloud’s Pangu Drug Molecule Model Accelerates New Drug Discovery

At the beginning of this year, Huawei announced high-level personnel changes, appointing Ryan Ding, then the managing director, as President of the Enterprise and Carrier BGs. In terms of organizational structure, Huawei is currently divided into three sections: operators, enterprises and consumers.

Ding’s last public appearance was on September 20 at Huawei Connect. In his keynote speech, he pointed out that under the impact of multiple uncertain factors, deepening digital transformation is the greatest certainty of enterprise development. Huawei works with partners to apply technology in different scenarios to help customers deepen digital transformation and enhance productivity.

Ding was not well-known publicly, as he had been engaged in operator and enterprise business activities for a long time, but he was a well-known executive in the industry, often participating in conferences and exhibitions on topics such as 5G, operators and digital transformation. After news of his death spread, many figures in the industry have expressed shock and condolences on social media, with one writing that this is “a great loss for the telecommunications industry.”

According to a financial report released by Huawei in August this year for the first half of 2022, the company achieved sales revenue of 301.6 billion yuan ($42.4 billion), including operator business revenue of 142.7 billion yuan, enterprise business revenue of 54.7 billion yuan and device business revenue of 101.3 billion yuan. The revenue of its operator business and enterprise business led by Ding also accounted for nearly two-thirds of the company’s total revenue. In Huawei’s “legions,” or “integrated teams” strategy, Ding also served as the head of the Industry Park Network Reserve Legion.