Xiaomi India, which is currently facing scrutiny and legal troubles from the Enforcement Directorate, has announced new leadership roles in the company. Alvin Tse, who is a Xiaomi Global founding team member and former General Manager of Xiaomi Indonesia, will assume the role of General Manager, Xiaomi India. Meanwhile, Xiaomi is also bringing Anuj Sharma back as its Chief Marketing Officer. Sharma was handling the sub-brand Poco till now.
Meanwhile, Manu Kumar Jain, who was earlier the Managing Director for Xiaomi India is now confirmed as Group Vice President (global) and will be responsible for International Strategy including International Marketing and PR, the company said in a press statement.
It should be noted that this is the first time the company has officially announced that Jain has moved on from this role in India. The India Managing Director title was quietly removed from Jain’s Twitter profile when the controversy with ED came to light. The last event where Jain was present for a Xiaomi launch was the Redmi Note 11 series. He has been absent at most events that followed including the Redmi Note 11 Pro series and the Xiaomi 12 Pro launch.
Alvin Tse is the new General Manager for Xiaomi India.
The press statement from Xiaomi also added that while Jain has moved on to an international role, other key members of his leadership team will remain in their respective positions. This includes Muralikrishnan B as Chief Operating Officer, Raghu Reddy as Chief Business Officer, and Sameer BS Rao as Chief Financial Officer. The statement adds that they have “have been leading the India business fairly independently and will continue to be a strong driving force behind the brand.”
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PremiumMeanwhile, the new India General Manager, Alvin is also a founding member of POCO, which is a Xiaomi sub-brand, though it operates independently. The company statement adds that “post his transition, Alvin will join hands with the Xiaomi India leadership team and support the company’s next phase of growth.” Alvin is a British resident and also a Stanford graduate.
It is also interesting that Sharma is being brought back as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. He will now “spearhead the overall brand and marketing strategy,” the company said. Sharma was to date the Country Director for POCO India. He has previously worked at Motorola. He was Xiaomi’s CMO between 2018 to 2020.
For Xiaomi, its legal troubles 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 ED’s case is that Xiaomi has remitted large amounts of money abroad to related entities in the name of royalties without actually utilising any services from them
Xiaomi on its part insists all payments are legitimate and lawful. “We believe our royalty payments and statements to the bank are all legit and truthful. These royalty payments that Xiaomi India made were for the in-licensed technologies and IPs used in our Indian version products. It is a legitimate commercial arrangement for Xiaomi India to make such royalty payments. However, we are committed to working closely with government authorities to clarify any misunderstandings,” a Xiaomi spokesperson had said at the time.
