October will be an important month for HTC’s fortunes with the impending release of its latest consumer virtual reality (VR) headset, Vive Cosmos. Today, the company has announced that CEO and Chairwoman Cher Wang would be stepping down as CEO, replaced by Yves Maitre.
Previously serving as EVP of Consumer Equipment and Partnerships for telecommunications firm Orange, Maitre has a long history in consumer electronics having also served as a member of Orange’s innovation technology group.
Wang will retain her role as Chairwoman of the HTC board, continuing her focus on future technology like the Vive brand.
“When I took over as CEO four years ago, I set out to reinvent HTC as a complete ecosystem company and lay the foundations for the company to flourish across 5G and XR. So, now is the perfect time to hand over the stewardship of HTC to a strong leader to guide us on the next stage of our journey,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman, HTC in a statement. “I am truly delighted that Yves is taking the reins; he has a long association with our company, and he shares our passion for innovation. I firmly believe Yves is the right leader to continue to lead HTC to its full potential.”
“HTC has long been a bellwether for new technology innovation and I’m honoured to be selected by the Board of Directors to lead the next phase of HTC,” said Yves Maitre, CEO at HTC. “Across the world, HTC is recognized for its firsts across the mobile and XR space. I am incredibly energized to grow the future of both 5G and XR alongside HTC employees, customers and investors. We will set out immediately to continue the transition from building the worlds’ best consumer hardware to also building complete services around them to make them easy to manage and deploy.”
As a whole HTC hasn’t been doing particularly great of late, experiencing substantial losses between January and March 2019. With the original HTC Vive now over three years old and devices like HTC Vive Pro aimed more towards the enterprise market, the arrival of Vive Cosmos next month is a crucial one. The company is heavily investing in future technologies and partnerships, as these progress VRFocus will keep you updated.