Xiaomi India, currently facing scrutiny and legal issues from the Enforcement Directorate, has announced new leadership roles in the company. Alvin Tse, a member of the founding team of Xiaomi Global and former general manager of Xiaomi Indonesia, will take over as general manager of Xiaomi India. Meanwhile, Xiaomi will also be bringing back Anuj Sharma as its chief marketing officer. Sharma was running the Poco sub-brand until now.
Meanwhile, Manu Kumar Jain, who was previously CEO of Xiaomi India, is now confirmed as Group Vice President (Global) and will be responsible for international strategy, including international marketing and public relations, the company said in a statement. press.
It should be noted that this is the first time the company has officially announced that Jain has stepped down from this position in India. The title of Managing Director of India was quietly removed from Jain’s Twitter profile when the controversy with ED came to light. The last event Jain was present for a Xiaomi launch was the Redmi Note 11 series. He has been absent from most of the events that followed, including the Redmi Note 11 Pro series and the Xiaomi 12 Pro launch.
Alvin Tse is the new General Manager of Xiaomi India.
Xiaomi’s press release also added that while Jain went on to play an international role, other key members of his leadership team will remain in their respective positions. This includes Muralikrishnan B as COO, Raghu Reddy as Commercial Director and Sameer BS Rao as CFO. The statement adds that they “have been leading the India business quite independently and will continue to be a strong driving force behind the brand.”
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Meanwhile, the new General Manager of India, Alvin, is also a founding member of POCO, which is a sub-brand of Xiaomi, although it operates independently. The company statement adds that “following his transition, Alvin will join Xiaomi India’s leadership team and support the company’s next phase of growth.” Alvin is a British resident and is also a Stanford graduate.
It’s also interesting that Sharma is returning as the company’s director of marketing. She will now “she will spearhead the overall brand and marketing strategy,” the company said. Sharma was to date the country director of POCO India. She previously worked at Motorola. She was CMO of Xiaomi between 2018 and 2020.
For Xiaomi, its legal problems in India continue. It was reported last month that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized assets to the tune of over Rs 5,551 crore belonging to the company. This was due to alleged violations of foreign exchange regulations. The ED had even questioned the company’s global vice president, Manu Kumar Jain. The case of the ED is that Xiaomi has remitted large amounts of money abroad to related entities in the name of royalties without using any services from them.
Xiaomi, for its part, insists that all payments are legitimate and legal. “We believe that our royalty payments and bank statements are legitimate and truthful. These royalty payments made by Xiaomi India were for the licensed technologies and IPs used in our Indian version products. It is a legitimate business agreement for Xiaomi India to make such royalty payments. However, we are committed to working closely with government authorities to clear up any misunderstandings,” a Xiaomi spokesperson said at the time.
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