SHANGHAI – Shannon Gao, chief financial officer at Spreadtrum Communications, Inc., is a Chinese born, U.S.-trained, Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Calif., who has worked for Spreadtrum since the company’s inception in 2001.
Gao, originally hired in the United States, worked there for many years before being asked to return to China when Leo Li took over Spreadtrum in 2009. Gao assumed the position of CFO in 2010.
Returning to China at that point in her life wasn’t exactly what she had planned. But Gao said yes to Leo, mostly, out of a sense of duty to Spreadtrum and loyalty to Leo. Gao had stood by the company through thick and thin, and she wasn’t going to quit during her company’s darkest days.
Spreadtrum, fabless Shanghai firm with a focus on baseband chips for mobile handsets, went public in 2007 after being touted as the top Chinese IC company. However, by the end of 2008, Spreadtrum’s Nasdaq stock price tanked spectacularly. Spreadtrum kept missing quarterly financial targets. By the first quarter of 2009, it was left with virtually “no customers,” and had only enough cash to “last only for the next two quarters,” explained Leo Li in a previous interview with EE Times.
