(Yicai) Jan. 20 -- Honor Terminal has changed its chief executive officer for the first time since Huawei Technologies sold the Chinese budget phone brand to a group of buyers four years ago.

George Zhao, who was Honor's CEO for nearly a decade, has stepped down from that role and as a director due to health reasons, the Shenzhen-based company announced on Jan. 17. He has been succeeded by Li Jian.

Li joined Honor in 2021 after a 20-year career at Huawei, where he was mainly responsible for overseas market development as regional president for the Americas, Europe, and West Africa. At Honor, Li has been vice chairman, director, and president of human resources.

Social media rumors claimed early last week that Zhao would be leaving Honor along with the entire team behind the Magic 7 phone series, which launched late last year. There have been persistent rumors about changes in Honor’s senior management team over the past few years.

On Jan. 15, a company insider told Yicai that Zhao was still with Honor and no internal announcements had been made regarding any changes in senior management.

Huawei set up Honor in 2013 and spun off the business in November 2020 after being sanctioned by the US government. A consortium of more than 30 companies, including state-owned Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, acquired it for CNY100 billion (USD13.7 billion) and appointed Zhao as its CEO.

The change of CEO follows Honor’s announcement last month that it had completed the process of bringing onboard new investors and would seek an initial public offering at an appropriate time.

Honor ranked fifth among Chinese smartphone makers last year after Vivo Mobile Communication, Huawei, Apple, and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, according to market research firm Canalys. However, its shipments fell 3 percent to 42.2 million items from the previous year, with its market share falling to 15 percent from 14 percent.

A distributor for Honor told Yicai that the company needs to adopt a more aggressive strategy to regain its footing in the market.

In response to the fierce domestic competition, Honor has been focusing more on overseas markets. For instance, it announced earlier this month a strategic partnership with Indonesian mobile phone retailer Erajaya to enter the Southeast Asian country’s premium smartphone market.

Overseas sales accounted for more than half of Honor’s total and gradually achieved profitability in several markets in late 2024, according to Li Jing, the firm’s president for the South Pacific region.

Jiang Hairong, who has worked for Honor and Huawei for over 20 years, will follow Zhao's quit and step down as chief market officer of Honor China, according to an internal company announcement obtained by Yicai today.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione