Another exec. Leaves HTC

HTC has suffered another loss at the
executive level with the sudden resignation
of Lorain Wong the vice president and head
of global public relations. Wong joined HTC
only four months ago to lead HTC’s global
communication strategies, including PR,
media, and corporate communications.
Wong has over 25 years of experience
in marketing, communications and media
and at one time was the Director of
Partnership Marketing for AT&T responsible
for negotiating and managing sports and
entertainment partnerships across Southern
California.

Her sudden departure comes at an
uncertain time for HTC which has lost six
senior executives in the past 2 and a half
years. Other recent causalities to HTC failing market position and worsening financial situation include HTC’s Chief Product
Officer, Kouji Kodera and HTC’s Asia CEO
Lennard Hoornik. Before them, marketing
chief John Wang and Chief Financial Officer
Winston Yung also moved on to greener pastures.

The reason given for Wong’s departure are
the standard “personal reasons” which is
almost double-speak for she was pushed.
However it seems that Wong is still of some
value to HTC as according to Chief
Marketing Officer Ben Ho, her direct
manager, she will stay on as a consultant
for three or four months. This consultancy
role is probably necessary during the
handover period to the next head of PR,
who has yet to be named.
Back in May product strategy manager Eric
Lin left HTC and advised all his friends still
working at the Taiwanese smartphone
maker to “just quit, leave now.” Eric’s tweet
went on further to say “it’s tough to do, but
you’ll be so much happier, I swear.”
Back in June HTC revealed that it had signed
a two-year marketing deal with Iron Man
star Robert Downey Jr. that was estimated
to be a worth a cool $12 million for the
actor. The total spend for the campaign is
thought to be around $1 billion. The first
series of adverts of the “Change” campaign
focus on the idea of transformation, and
comically used combinations of words that
start with the letters H, T, and C, such as
“Hipster Troll Carwash”, “Hold This Cat”
or “Humongous Tinfoil Catamaran”. It is
likely that Wong had a part in this campaign
but it is unknown if the campaign’s impact
has anything to do with her leaving the
company.