2016/4/13
Hikvision’s Top North American Exec Discusses China Ties, Market Goals Security Sales and Integration
He has been in the security industry for the past 25 years.
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February’s annual Business Issue of SSI includes a pro揜㋋le of Hikvision, which has grown tremendously in the past 10 years to become the world’s No. 1 video security surveillance products and solutions manufacturer. However, as the company has disrupted the U.S. marketplace by delivering products that perform at levels typically found in higher priced alternatives, so too has it come under 揜㋋re due to its communist China base. Hikvision USA/Canada President Jeꗨ檪rey He, a 25-year security veteran (GE, Bosch, DSC, Verint) who is also featured in the print piece, addresses the controversy here as well as other aspects of the 揜㋋rm’s operations.
Let’s address the elephant in the room and attempt to clear the air regarding questions out there about Hikvision’s 揜㋋nancing and relationship with communist China’s government. How can you help U.S.-based security professionals feel good about doing business with Hikvision? Jeꗨ檪rey He: Thank you for that opportunity. This is a pretty large question. I’m not really an expert on the national politics, or the macro economy. But let me try to explain a bit of the structure of the company. There are two state-owned enterprises that own 42% of the company, with other people and venture capital investors owning the rest, including 18% from private equity in Hong Kong. Then in the open stock market there are shareholders all over the place. Some of the shareholders are foreign investors, as well. For people who don’t really understand what state-owned enterprises are, and they’re trying to equalize them with the government, that’s too simple and sometimes naïve or purposely misleading. You can’t equalize state-owned enterprises to the government, that’s No. 1. No. 2, even though we’re partially owned by these SOEs, we’re also owned by many other legal entities or private parties. We are responsible to those shareholders as well. Many believe we have received funding from the government. In fact, yes or no, I am a Canadian myself. I worked for a Canadian company in the past. When we did research, we could apply a research grant from the Canadian government. If it’s approved or not approved is a diꗨ檪erent story. In the past, the company I worked with received a certain grant. So Hikvision has a certain grant from the government as well, for research and development.
On the commercial side, we go out for tender. That will be a totally diꗨ檪erent story. The tender has a diꗨ檪erent element, diꗨ檪erent requirements. As
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