A Growing Leadership Migration: US Companies with China-based Executives

Intel today announced one of its most senior executives, Sean Maloney, would move to Beijing and assume a newly created role of Chairman for Intel China. Maloney was once rumored to be the successor of Paul Otellini, Intel’s current CEO. The company was quoted: “It’s unprecedented for us…We’ve never put someone at that high a level in another country.”

In line with the recent post on this blog about the “Modern (Global) CEO,” this movement is not unique: General Electric’s John Rice, a vice-chairman, was previously based in the US and relocated to Hong along with an appointment in January to lead global operations (all non-US business).  Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of earthmoving equipment, also moved its President, Rich Lavin, from the US to Hong Kong – marking a first for the company to have a member of its executive office in Asia.  Ford Motor Company announced the movement of its headquarters from Bangkok to Shanghai back in 2009. 

BusinessWeek: “Intel Names Maloney Chairman of China Unit Amid Demand Surge”
Financial Times: “Intel joins Beijing push with executive move”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 6:40 pm. It is filed under China, Management, Multinationals and tagged with Caterpillar, Ford, GE, Intel, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.