Huawei appoints VP sales for US business

Chinese infrastructure vendor Huawei has appointed a VP of sales for its US business as it looks to grow revenue in a difficult market. Bill Gerski joins the vendor with 40 years of experience through executive marketing and sales positions at Dish Network, Golden Sky Systems, Sirius Satellite Radio, Time Warner, Viacom, Bell Atlantic and the National Rural Telecommunications Co-op.

“Bill’s relationship with the rural telcos, electrics and wireless ISPs are perfect matches for Huawei’s innovative solutions to meet continual growing customer needs,” said Ming He, president of Huawei Technologies USA.

In December last year, media reports claimed that Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei had decided the firm would abandon the US market. The reports followed years of tension in the wake of  US government allegations that Huawei may be implementing spyware into its equipment on behalf of the Chinese military. The claims resulted in the firm being banned from participating in major network contract bids.

However, in a recent statement to Telecoms.com, the firm said: “We remain committed to our customers, employees, investments and operations and more than $1bn in sales in the US, and we stand ready to deliver additional competition and innovative solutions as desired by customers and allowed by authorities

Back in October 2012, the US House Intelligence Committee warned the nation’s telecoms operators not to trust Huawei or Chinese rival ZTE.

The government committee issued the warning at the time after conducting an investigation into the corporate operations of both firms. Huawei had requested the investigation into its operations in February 2011 after denying that there was any justification for US security concerns.

On a trip to New Zealand in May last year, CEO Ren attempted to allay concerns: “Huawei equipment is almost non-existent in networks currently running in the US,” he said. “We have never sold any key equipment to major US carriers, nor have we sold any equipment to any US government agency. Huawei has no connection to the cyber security issues the US has encountered in the past, current and future.”