Former BT Chairman Sir Mike Rake has announced he will be stepping down from the board of Huawei in the UK.
In the latest blow to the Chinese company’s presence in the UK, Sir Mike said that he will leave his role as a a non-executive director next month.
He had joined the board in 2019, and helped advise Huawei through an extremely tumultuous period that has seen it struggle worldwide.
Huawei board
“Huawei has made a major contribution to the UK economy, its infrastructure , research capabilities and competitiveness for twenty years with transparency and openness,” Sir Mike said in a statement.
“I have been pleased to have provided advice and support to them since 2019 and particularly with the issues they have recently faced in this country.”
Huawei vice president Victor Zhang also thanked Sir Mike for his work with the company, noting that, “Sir Mike Rake’s sound guidance during a turbulent period for Huawei has proved invaluable since his advisory role began in 2019.”
“A highly respected business leader and former Chairman of BT group, Sir Mike brought his wealth of telecommunications knowledge to the Huawei UK board in 2020.”
Sir Mike spent a decade at BT from 2007, a period during which BT expanded its superfast broadband network, purchased EE for £12.5 billion, and separated Openreach into an independent company.
He had recently aspoken out against the UK government’s opposition to Huawei, stating that any ban would be a considerable blow to the nation’s broadband ambitions.
However UK operators were banned from using Huawei’s equipment in their 5G infrastructure in July 2020.
Huawei, along with several other Chinese companies, has also been on the US ‘non-entity’ list since 2019, a status that prevents US companies from doing business with it without a licence. This has limited its access to key technologies such as Google applications and US-manufactured components.
Via Sky News