Huawei has confirmed the unexpected death of its long-serving executive Ding Yun, also known as Ryan Ding, at age 53.
Ding passed away on 7th October just hours after completing training for a marathon. He was a passionate long-distance runner.
Ding joined Huawei in 1996 and served as the Vice Chairman of the vendor’s Supervisory Board. In 2017 he was appointed head of Huawei’s Carrier Business Group, and was made president of its Enterprise Business Group in January this year. For the first half of 2022, the Carrier Business Group brought in revenue of CNY301.6 billion ($42.4 billion) – almost half of the group’s total.
Huawei’s VP of Global Network Solutions Mohamed Madkour described Ding as “a leader from whom I personally learned a lot. His vision, wisdom and work spirit in Huawei for the past 26 years was just remarkable”.
I was able to interview Ding at a roundtable event in 2017, and I was struck by the passion with which he addressed my questions about delivering connectivity in emerging markets. The breadth of his technological knowledge was as evident as his belief in the beneficial impact that internet connectivity could have in developing regions, and I link to the original interview here.
