Xiaomi
What was the name of the employer Hugo Barra work for in Feb 2013?
Hugo Barra Hugo Barra ( born 28 October 1976 in Belo Horizonte , Brazil ) is a Brazilian computer scientist , technology executive and entrepreneur . From 2008 to 2013 , he served in a number of product management roles at Google in London and California , including Vice President and product spokesman of Googles Android division . He was vice president of the Chinese electronics company , Xiaomi , from 2014 to 2017 . As of January 2017 , he is Vice President of Virtual Reality at Facebook , which he joined shortly after his departure from Xiaomi . Early life and education . Barra attended primary and secondary schools at local Colégio Pitágoras in Belo Horizonte , Brazil , and in 1995 enrolled at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais ( UFMG ) , majoring in Electrical Engineering . In 1996 , Barra transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) , graduating with a bachelors degree in management science and masters in electrical engineering and computer science . He was class president of the class of 2000 and student keynote speaker at MIT commencement 2000 . Career . Google . Barra joined American technology company Google in London in March 2008 as Group Product Manager for the Google Mobile team . In 2010 Barra joined the Android team . From 2010 to 2013 , Barras role expanded to include product spokesperson for the Android team , speaking at both press conferences and Google I/O , Googles annual developer-focused conference . Barras product involvement included the entire Android ecosystem of software and hardware , including Honeycomb , Ice Cream Sandwich , Jelly Bean and KitKat operating system launches , the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 smartphones , the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets , and other related products such as Google Now , selected in 2013 as Popular Sciences Innovation of the Year , and Google Voice Search , Googles speech recognition service . He was promoted to Vice President in 2012 . Xiaomi . In September 2013 , Barra left Google for Chinese electronics company Xiaomi , serving as Vice President of International . The move was considered a ‘significant hire’ for Xiaomi , one of the fastest growing manufacturers in China , enhancing international legitimacy to the company by adding a key former Google Android executive to its senior management . In December 2013 , Barra spoke at LeWeb tech conference in Paris , France about his impressions of the Chinese economy and the opportunity it represented for tech companies such as Xiaomi , citing Chinas 600 million internet users , high market caps of recent Chinese IPOs , the massive scale of the top Chinese apps monthly active users , and the size of companies such as Alibabas Taobao , a shopping site more than double the size of eBay and Amazon combined . The talk was widely cited throughout the industry . In February 2014 , Barra announced the launch of the new Redmi and Mi3 smartphones in Singapore , then in India . Global expansion outside of China into surrounding emerging markets is a key initiative for Xiaomi , given the companys business model to release high performance smartphone products at an affordable consumer price , generating revenue not only from the hardware itself , but the software and internet services provided to the consumer . According to Xiaomi co-founder and president Lei Jun , it is entirely Barra’s job to figure out which region that we should enter next and how . Barra has stated intentions to expand next into various countries . In March 2014 , Barra visited Foxconn , a Taiwanese manufacturing company with plants in Brazil and Mexico responsible for assembling products for various tech brands , indicating plans for Xiaomi to expand into Latin America . In May 2014 , Barra announced the launch of the Mi Pad , a 7.9 inch tablet . We spent four years working up to the point where we thought we had the right hardware design and software capability to build a world-class tablet , Barra said . We think we are there , finally . Barra described the release as part of Xiaomis overall strategy to expand both its product lineup and into new international markets including Hong Kong , Taiwan , and Singapore . Barra also indicated eventual plans to enter the U.S . market . In January 2017 , Barra announced his departure from Xiaomi . Barra explained his decision had been strongly motivated by a feeling of detachment from his family and the life he had built up in Silicon Valley . What Ive 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 Ive left behind these past few years , it is clear to me that the time has come to return . There are reports that quoted Barra saying that his resignation was prompted by health reasons and some analysts noted that the departure came amid Xiaomis declining sales in China . On the other hand , global expansion has been successful . Around the time of his resignation , Xiaomi announced that it has exceeded US$1 billion in revenue from the Indian market alone . Facebook . He announced in a Facebook post on 25 January 2017 that he would be joining Facebook as Vice President of virtual reality , writing : I’m excited to share my next adventure as I return to Silicon Valley—in a couple of months Ill be joining Facebook as VP of virtual reality ( VPVR! ) and lead the Oculus team . Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun always says that the highest calling of an engineer is to make technology breakthroughs quickly and readily available to the widest possible spectrum of humanity . That will be my mission at Facebook and I look forward to building the future of immersive technology with Mark Zuckerberg , Brendan Trexler Iribe , Mike Schroepfer , and the visionaries in the Oculus team.Based on his early pronouncements , Barra appears to be focusing on the development of standalone VR headsets as well as social VR . During an appearance at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ) , he described the technology as a product category that will help us bring the most number of people into VR and really start unlocking these opportunities for social presence . During the event , Barra announced Oculus standalone VR headset called Oculus Go , with Xiaomi as global hardware partner . Honors and awards . In 2011 , Barra was ranked #23 in Wired Magazines Wired 100 . In 2013 , Business Insiders Silicon Valley 100 included Barra at #92 . Brazils Época magazine ranked Barra among the most influential Brazilians in both 2011 and 2013 .