HTC CEO Yves Maitre has resigned, citing personal reasons, in just less than a year since he took over the role.
Maitre assumed the position of CEO in late September 2019, around a month before HTC launched its latest consumer-focused PC VR headset, the Vive Cosmos. Maitre moved to HTC from French phone company Orange, and at the time HTC emphasized “5G and XR” as areas of potential growth.
In an interview with Bloomberg shortly after the launch of the Cosmos, Maitre said that he wasn’t sure that “the target is to beat Oculus.” The comments preceded a year where HTC has increasingly pivoted toward the enterprise market and shifted focus away from consumers.
Now, just shy of a year since Maitre became CEO, he has resigned from the position for personal reasons. Here’s a statement on the resignation issued by HTC:
HTC Corp., the global leader in smartphone and virtual reality innovation, today announced that the strict international travel restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted the lives of millions as well as business globally, have had an impact on its CEO, Yves Maitre, in reconciling work and family. Today, the Board of Directors accepted Yves’ resignation for personal reasons. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors. The Company’s chairwoman, Cher Wang, has assumed the CEO position.
Cher Wang has been in the CEO before — she took over as CEO in 2015 from Peter Chou and stayed in the role until last year. Yves Maitre took over from Wang in September of last year.
