Sun Yafang (Chinese: 孙亚芳; born 1955)[1] is a Chinese engineer and business executive. She is the longest serving Chairwoman of Huawei, a position she held from 1999 to 2018.[2] As of 2016, she is listed as the 38th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.[3]
She began her career with Huawei in 1989 and became chairwoman of the corporation in 1999.[4]
In March 2018, Huawei switched to a rotating chairman to run the company, continuing Huawei's collective leadership system.[9] Sun Yafang stepped down as Chairwoman of Huawei after nineteen years and was replaced by Liang Hua.[10][11]
Awards
In May 2012, she received the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award from the International Telecommunication Union.[2] In 2014, she was listed as the 81st most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.[3]
^Barrett, Devlin; Stein, Perry; Nakashima, Ellen (2022-10-24). "DOJ accuses 10 Chinese spies and government officials of 'malign schemes'". The Washington Post. ISSN0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2023-03-30. Retrieved 2023-10-18. Huawei's former chairwoman, Sun Yafang, who retired in 2018, had previously worked for the Ministry of State Security, China's main foreign intelligence service, according to an essay published under her name in a Chinese magazine in 2017.