HTC has confirmed that Lennard Hoornik, CEO of HTC Asia, has left the company to pursue “other interests”. The high-profile departure follows a similar exit by Jason Gordon, Vice President of Global Communications and reportedly Chief Product Officer Kouji Kodera, among others.
“HTC can confirm that Lennard Hoornik has left HTC,” a statement sent to Engadget reads. “We appreciate his contributions to our South Asia efforts over the past year and wish him all the best. HTC’s CFO, Chialin Chang will provide interim leadership in this strategic region while we work to find a permanent solution.”
Gordon announced his departure on Twitter earlier this week, explaining that his last day was in fact May 17. “After nearly seven years at HTC, my last day was Friday,” he tweeted. “I’ve worked with some amazing people and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
HTC is in a vulnerable state right now after launching two key products; the HTC One, its new flagship Android device that will compete with the Samsung Galaxy S4 over the next 12 months, as well as the HTC First, the only smartphone to come pre-installed with Facebook Home.
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The Verge is reporting that Kodera also left the Taiwanese tablet and smartphone manufacturer last week. To have such high-profile employees is cause for concern on its own, but it follows a turbulent few months where Rebecca Rowland, Global Retail Marketing Manager, John Starkweather, Director of Digital Marketing and Eric Lin, Product Strategy Manager have also moved on to pastures new.
To all my friends still at @htc – just quit. leave now. it’s tough to do, but you’ll be so much happier, I swear.
— eric L (@ericlin) May 20, 2013
Company morale is likely being affected by flagging revenue; the company reported net income after tax of $2.88 million for the first quarter of 2013, on top of $1.45 billion in total sales. Final quarter performance for 2012 was equally concerning.
HTC is also set to abando HTC Watch, its mobile movie rental and purchase service, in Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden by the end of the month.
The firm is looking to refresh its image at the moment and perhaps these departures area reflection of that. Regardless, we’ve contacted HTC to find out why Kodera left the company and whether this is all part of a larger restructuring.
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