In an unanticipated move, Chinese electronics company, Xiaomi’s Global Vice President, Hugo Barra announced that he was quitting from his position. The Brazillian computer scientist who has also been the spokesman of Google’s Android division said that his schedule while working in the company was taking a toll on his life and had started affecting his health.
He took to Facebook to announce his decision saying that the “journey has been nothing short of spectacular in every way, and I can proudly say that Xiaomi Global is the first baby I helped bring into the world.” He further affirmed that he believed after years of hard work, he wished to return back home to his family and friends in Silicon Valley.
“What I’ve realized is that the last few years of living in such a singular environment have taken a huge toll on my life and started affecting my health. My friends, what I consider to be my home, and my life are back in Silicon Valley, which is also much closer to my family. Seeing how much I’ve left behind these past few years, it is clear to me that the time has come to return,” he said in a Facebook post.
Co-founder of Xiaomi Mi, Bin Lin also commented on his Facebook post saying he “couldn’t thank him enough for contributing so much to Xiaomi’s journey,” adding that Xiang Wang, Xiaomi Senior Vice President, will lead our entire global efforts.
Here are five quick facts about the outgoing Vice President:
– Hugo started a company named LOBBY7 with his classmates from the Massachutes Institute of Technology to work on speech recognition software. They named their company after the lobby of building 7, the main entrance to the Infinite Corridor at MIT. In 2003, ScanSoft acquired LOBBY7 which became Nuance Communications in 2005 via merger.
-Nexus devices including the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 is said to be the brainchild of Hugo Barra.
-Barra, left Google to join Xiaomi in the year 2013.
-Barra, after leaving Google, gave a talk in LeWeb Tech Conference in Paris. There he mentioned that he runs his entire social life via the free app WeChat. He also used this app to make phone calls, email, or text messaging.
– Hugo brought the concept of flash sale of smartphones in India. He opposed the idea of advertising as it would add to the cost of Smartphones and also said that in India ‘word of mouth’ works when it comes to buying products.
This comes at a time when Xiaomi launched Redmi Note 4 in three variants in India- 3GB RAM with 32GB internal memory, which is priced at Rs 9,999; 2GB RAM with 32GB internal memory, which is priced at Rs 10,999 and 4GB RAM with 64GB internal memory, which is priced at Rs 12,999.
You can read his entire Facebook post, here:
