HONOLULU -- Huawei Submarine Networks Co., Ltd. today announced the appointment of four new members to its senior management team at the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. The company, which was formed in 2007 as joint venture between Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. of China and Global Marine Systems of the U.K., has appointed Ian Douglas as Chief Executive Officer, Xiong Feng as Chief Financial Officer, Bruce Neilson-Watts as Chief Planning Officer, and Yiquan Lu as Chief System Engineer.



Douglas will deliver a keynote speech to the PTC Conference delegates as part of the “Submarine Cable” round table on Monday, January 15th at 11:30 AM. Yiquan Lu will speak on a panel regarding “Submarine Cable Developments for Smaller Island Communities” on Sunday, January 13th at 9:45 AM.



“I am very pleased to be working with such a talented, experienced and dedicated management team,” said Ian Douglas, CEO, Huawei Submarine Networks. "With this group, and the continued support of Huawei in the telecommunication arena and Global Marine in the submarine industry, we can truly bring something new to system owners and operators. We believe our approach to submarine telecommunication and turnkey system installation gives customers a real choice – something not seen in submarine telecommunications for a long time.”



Ian Douglas, Chief Executive Officer



Ian Douglas is Huawei Submarine Networks Chief Executive Officer and will oversee all the company’s global activities, drive strategic initiatives and be responsible for fostering key customer and partner relationships. An engineer by trade and a long established veteran of the submarine telecoms industry, Mr. Douglas served as Global Marine’s Asia Pacific Director from 1995-2002. In this role he was responsible for all the company’s activities in this region, including the co-ordination of strategic key joint ventures with China Telecom, SingTel (ICPL), NTT (NTT-World Engineering Marine Corporation) and the operation of Global Marine Cable Services Pte in Singapore.



In 2002, Mr. Douglas became Director and General Manager of SB Submarine Systems (SBSS), a joint venture between China Telecom and Global Marine, where he successfully led the expansion of the company into non-telecoms fields including power cable installation and the provision of offshore vessel support to the oil and gas industry.



Mr. Douglas is one of only a handful of western businessmen to receive the Friendship Award – the highest honour awarded by the Chinese Government for contributions to China.



Xiong Feng, Chief Financial Officer



Xiong Feng is the Chief Financial Officer for Huawei Submarine Networks. Mr. Feng brings to the role significant experience in telecommunication operation and management, having previously worked for 30 years with China Telecom in a variety of management positions.



From 2000 to 2006, Mr. Feng served as the President and Board Chairman of Guangdong Telecom, China Telecom’s largest business unit with revenues of $6 billion USD. Mr. Feng is also the Vice Chairman of the China Telecom Science Technology Committee, and has a master’s degree in electronic and electric engineering.



Bruce Neilson-Watts, Chief Planning Officer



A veteran of submarine telecommunications industry for almost 20 years, Bruce Neilson-Watts will serve as Chief Planning Office for Huawei Submarine Networks. Formerly with Global Marine Systems, Neilson-Watts worked as Development Director for the Asia Pacific region and managed business development relationships with Huawei Technologies.



Mr. Neilson-Watts originally joined BT Marine (now called Global Marine Systems) in 1989 and has significant experience at sea, having held a number of key roles throughout his career at Global Marine Systems. He has served as a marine apprentice in both marine engineering and navigation, culminating in the successful certification as a dual qualified marine engineering and navigating officer. This distinction is rare in the ranks of British officers and was the first in the history of BT Marine. Mr. Neilson-Watts later went on to become the youngest officer in the history of the company to earn the rank of Captain (Master Mariner).



Yiquan Lu, Chief System Engineer



Yiquan Lu is Chief System Engineer at Huawei Submarine Networks and is responsible for the design and development of advanced submarine products for the company.



Mr. Lu began his career at Huawei as an optical engineer working on advanced optical networking systems. He has significant project management, R&D experience and has also worked as a standards engineer, advancing many international standards related to telecommunications equipment. Most recently, he was a system engineer in charge of DWDM product design and development.



Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.