John Brumby, Alexander Downer and John Lord have been announced as independent Directors to sit on Huawei Australia’s newly established Board of Directors. The Board will be charged with overseeing Huawei’s local strategy and developing further inroads into the Australian market.

The full Board will be comprised of the three independent Australian Directors, alongside Huawei Australia CEO Mr. Guo Fulin, Huawei South Pacific President Mr. Jeff Liu, and two members from Huawei’s global Board: global Director Ms. Chen Lifang, and global Executive Director Mr. Li Jie. John Lord will act as Chairman of the Board.

Mr John Brumby, the former Premier of Victoria, says Huawei has a lot to contribute to Australia’s ICT sector.

“Having worked with Huawei to commit $250,000 towards the Next Generation Technology Training Centre with RMIT University, Huawei showed it was willing to train local students and tackle Australia’s ICT skills shortage,” he said

Huawei’s Australian business has grown substantially since the company opened its first office in Chatswood with just 20 staff in 2004. Over 80 per cent of Huawei staff are now locals, with staff numbers set to double from 300 at the end of 2010 to more than 600 by the end of 2011.

The company now partners with all major Australian operators including Vodafone, Optus, vividwireless, Telstra, AAPT, Primus, TPG, and more. It has also forged partnerships with Australian Universities including RMIT to create a Next-Generation Technology Training Centre, as well as supplying fibre-optic broadband technology to the University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society (IBES).