Editing by Greg Gao

UNISOC(展锐), a leading supplier of mobile communication and IoT chipsets based in Shanghai, announced on February 28 that Chu Qing(楚庆)will step down from his role as CEO, and Ren Qiwei(任奇伟) is appointed as the interim CEO.

Chu Qing, 50, had served as UNISOC’s CEO since 2018. His previous experience included working for Huawei, Hisilicon, and other telecom companies in various roles.  

Ren Qiwei, 52, is a well-known semiconductor expert and a senior corporate executive in the semiconductor industry. He has worked in Philips, Qimonda, Inspur Group for more than 20 years, focusing on chip R&D, mass production, and sales. A graduate of Tsinghua University, he also studied in Holland for his doctorate.

UNISOC said that Ren Qiwei will cooperate with Chairman Wu Shengwu to jointly lead the company and continue to make breakthroughs in key areas such as 5G chips. UNISOC also added that this CEO succession is a normal personnel adjustment within the company and that its production and operating activities remain normal. It is believed that after Ren joins UNISOC, he will further enhance the company's management, accelerate the research and development of core products.

After the consortium led by Beijing's Jianguang Asset Management and Wise Road Capital took over the debt-ridden Tsinghua Unigroup, the parent company of UNISOC, at the end of 2021, there have been rumors that there may be changes in the senior management of UNISOC. On February 15, Wu Shengwu replaced Zhao Weiguo, who led the aggressive expansion of Tsinghua Unigroup, as the new chairman of UNISOC.