3Com Sends Mao to China

3Com underlined its desire to boost its presence in China with the appointment of Robert Mao as its new CEO last night.

The former 3Com EVP for corporate development, who replaces the departing Edgar Masri, is fluent in Mandarin, and 3Com has also taken the bold move of basing its new CEO in China.

The vendor also named former Tropos CEO Ronald Sege as its new COO yesterday as part of a long-term plan to boost its global presence.

Bob brings the company a set of skills that are uniquely fitted to 3Com’s current business needs,” said Eric Benhamou, chairman of the 3Com board, in a statement. “Having him based out of China and having an experienced leader of Bob’s caliber based in the United States will allow us to speed execution of our global business plan.”

Storage sales in Asia were amongst the highlights of 3Com’s recent Q3 results, boosted by a 10 percent year-over-year revenue hike in China and strong performance from 3Com's Hong Kong-based H3C subsidiary.3Com’s North American business is a very different story, and the vendor experienced a 27 percent year-over-year revenue decrease in Q3, hence the renewed emphasis on China.

Clearly, the collapse of 3Com’s $2.2 billion acquisition by Bain Capital and Huawei has not diminished 3Com’s enthusiasm for the Chinese market, which is seen as a potential goldmine by storage vendors.

Don’t be surprised if other vendors follow 3Com’s lead and install senior execs within the People’s Republic over the coming years.

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